Sky Shards
by Loveon
Summary: Lena has a problem. She needs to get a Pokémon by the end of her school year or she'll be expelled. For good. Not only that, but now there's a dangerous rumor going around that the legendary Pokémon intend to eliminate all humans from the earth itself. Can she and her friends stop this from happening? Or are they doomed to fail?
1. Chapter 1: VS Raichu

Author's Note: This story requires some explaining. It originally started as an original story, (as in, no Pokemon, and everything was my own creation), but it wasn't working out very well. One night, a sudden idea struck me: turn it into a fan fic. Yes, really.

The title, Sky Shards, will be explained later. I know, it's weird, but it makes sense later on? I think? I don't know.

Anyway, the main reason I'm writing this is because, quite simply, I'm bored and need something to do while I wait for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire to come out. And while I have a basic idea of how the story will end, everything else in between is unplanned, and comes out just as my brain comes up with it. This is how I typically write, and it usually works when it comes to finishing things.

Also. The character Lena is quite similar in personality to another OC of mine, named Raven. And this would be because they are the same person, with different names. I mentioned in the latest chapter of Hoenn Tales (which I'm no longer updating) that Raven would receive a rename, and this is her new name. I realize no one gives two shits, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

While this story does feature an OC or two or three or I don't know, I'm 99.9% sure that there will not be any OC/Canon pairings. I specialize (haha, yeah, right) in teasing shippings, so there will be plenty of that, but probably nothing becoming canon within the story.

Chapter titles will be Pokemon Adventures-esque, as in VS (Pokemon featured in chapter). It's not very creative, I know, but whatever.

I realize it's been a while since I've posted any stories, and my writing might feel a little odd and... not very professional, but I hope it entertains you.

* * *

><p>Chapter 1: VS Raichu<p>

The ship was enormous. Lena could see that, easily. She wondered how long it would take to walk from one end of the ship to the other. But right now, it was resting in a docking area in the earth, while people hurried around to do potential repairs.

It was the Kalos region ship, Santalune City. The only city in Kalos with a school; as such, this was where Lena was going to be living for the time being.

"Lena, what're you doing?" her mother called. Lena snapped out of her trance with the ship and found her mother nearby, talking with some man she'd never seen before. Lena grabbed her backpack, shouldered it, and hurried after her mother.

"What?" Lena asked.

"We're getting on the ship," her mother said.

"Don't want to."

"I'm sorry, was there something on my face that said that I care what you want?"

"Well, you should. As your only daughter-"

"Thank Arceus."

"-you should totally care what I think about and want," Lena finished.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but I still don't care," said her mother. "Let's get on the ship. We can't waste all day standing here."

They walked up closer to the ship. The ship was resting within a mold of its shape in the ground, so deeply within the ground that the ship's under area was no longer visible. All they had to do was pass through the now-open gates into the city.

Their paperwork was filled out; everything was ready. But Lena wasn't.

She was supposed to be going to school in Sinnoh's Jubilife City ship, not this Kalos piece of crap. And that was where she _had_ been going, up until now, when her mother suddenly decided that they were to move to Kalos to be closer to family. Lena didn't know what family they had in Kalos, and she didn't care, either.

Not to mention that Lena hadn't even been able to take a Pokémon from Sinnoh to join her here in Kalos. Her friends all had Pokémon already, but she had been putting it off for years. School rules stated that, regardless of what region you were in, if you finished your third year of high school without a Pokémon in your posession, you would not be allowed to go into the fourth and final year of school.

She didn't understand the rules. Wasn't waiting until the final year kind of pushing it close? But those were the rules.

And she didn't have a single Pokémon with her.

It was April, nearing the end of the school year, and she still had no Pokémon. At this rate, she was going to have to repeat the third year again. Or worse, she'd get expelled. And if she was expelled, no one would ever want to give her a job, and she'd be stuck living with her mother, unemployed and Pokémon-less.

It really did suck.

They passed through the gates, showed the guards their various forms of paperwork, and then were told some useless information that Lena pretty much forgot the instant it went into her head. She'd let her mother remember all that stuff.

"Let's go to our house now," her mother said as they headed out of the gate area. Lena didn't answer. For one thing, she was pissed at her mother; she didn't care what Lena wanted. And for another, how could her mother do this to her, make her leave all her friends behind, just so they could be with "family"?

They found their house. It was a boring, plain, two-story building with a tree out front. Lena stared at the boring building before shaking her head, sighing, and heading on inside after her mother.

"Why don't you go explore while I get the furniture in here?" her mother suggested as she took out the various tags used for transporting items from one location to the next. She placed one tag on the floor.

Lena watched as her mother sent out her Pokémon, a Raichu. It was an orange rat-like Pokémon, with black and yellow ears and a long, thin tail that ended with a yellow thunderbolt.

Raichu stuck its tail on the tag and electricity flooded into it. It jumped back as the tag began to glow, and a table rose out of the tag on the floor. That was the point of those tags; to allow for transport of items instantly, as long as they were tagged with the same tag one had. To Lena's knowledge, the tags varied in ways they were activated...

Her mother caught her staring. "What?"

"Nothing," Lena snapped. She turned and left the house.

She stood outside, leaning against the tree and sighing occasionally. She missed her friends. The four of them had been friends since they were babies, and now, just like that, they were broken apart. How could this have happened? It was terrible.

Lena sank down to the ground. She looked up into the sky. It was a bright, vivid blue, with a couple of clouds in sight.

Lena hoped it would rain.

Something caught her eye. Lena turned to find a Pokémon standing there, staring at her with creepy, round eyes. It was a grayish purple, with cowlicks sticking up around its body.

"_Mraaowr,"_ it said, then ran off down the street.

Lena stared after it. Was that a Kalos Pokémon? Or maybe not... while it wasn't uncommon for Pokémon from other regions to be on ships, they were usually under the ownership on another person.

Lena shrugged. Whatever.

* * *

><p>"LENA, GET IN HERE," was her mother's wake-up call to her outside. Lena jolted awake. She'd fallen asleep outside. She stood up carefully, feeling for that familiar hum that signaled they were in the air, but felt nothing. They must have still been on the ground, then.<p>

Rubbing her eyes, she noticed how dark it was outside. She must have been out here for a couple of hours, then. With a sigh, she walked inside.

All of their furniture from their old house was here now. Her mother had finished summoning them through the use of those travel tags. All of the furniture was bolted into the floor already, to prevent it from sliding around if the ship ever made any sudden movements.

Lena wanted to cry. She wanted to go back home and sit on the couch with her friends while watching TV. She didn't want to be here, in this new region, surrounded by unfamiliar people and Pokémon.

"I ordered takeout," her mother said from where she stood in the kitchen with her Raichu.

"Oh, right. You don't know how to cook, I forgot."

Her mother's eye twitched. "Want to say that again?"

Because she feared her mother's wrath, Lena kept quiet.

"So you didn't explore like I told you to," her mother said as Lena took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Nope," Lena said.

"I forgot, you're too lazy to do anything."

"Yup."

Lena sat at the table for a few minutes, until someone knocked on their front door. Her mother went to go answer it, and Lena suddenly smelled various foods. Johto food. Her mother had gone for Johto food. Personally, she preferred, oh, _Sinnoh food, _but-

"Eat," her mother ordered, setting down the various containers of food. As she said that, everything around them began to rumble. Lena felt the familiar lurch in her stomach that signaled the ship was taking flight, and remained seated until she felt the rumbling settle into a faint hum.

"Now eat," her mother said.

"You don't need to tell me that, woman."

"I'm your mother. Not 'woman.'"

Lena rolled her eyes and grabbed one of the containers. She didn't know there was a restaurant here in Santalune that sold food from Johto. She didn't care for it, however.

That didn't stop her from eating, though.

"Remember, you start school on Monday," her mother said, apparently trying to start a conversation with Lena.

"Great."

"I'm picking up your uniform tomorrow."

"Mm."

Her mother sighed. She seemed to consider something, then leaned over, placing a hand on Lena's hand. Lena pulled her hand free.

"Lena, just think. You're in a new city now. Aren't you a little excited?"

"No. I was excited for watching a marathon of Spirit Adventures with my friends tonight."

"Look, you can make new friends here."

"Doubt it."

"If you want, you can even stay at the dorms."

"Nope."

"Maybe you'll even get a boyfriend."

Lena pretended to vomit up her food onto her plate.

"Do all sixteen-year-olds pretend to vomit when their mother kindly suggests the possibility of their getting a boyfriend?"

"Do all mothers make their children move to a new region on such short notice just because the wanted to be closer to family?"

"Mm, point taken."

* * *

><p>The first week of school was the most awful experience in Lena's life. She had gotten into a fight with some stupid pretty boy right on the first day, pissed off one of the teachers so bad that he left the classroom for the rest of class (and supposedly did not return to school until it was the next day), and was sent home early on Friday after she wrote an incredibly vulgar message on their classroom's chalkboard.<p>

"She wrote _what?!_ I'll have to have a talk with her," her mother had said when she called the school after Lena came home early.

That "talk" was more of a screaming match that ended with Lena getting chased out of the house for the rest of the day by her mother.

The next week was no better than the first, though by now her classmates knew better than to talk with her. As such, her second week of school was spent being completely alone, something that suited Lena just fine.

On the Friday of her second week of school, her homeroom teacher, a weird-looking man by the name of Sycamore, asked her to stay behind after her classmates so he could have a talk with her.

"So, you're our transfer student Lena," he said.

"Yup."

"It's come to my attention that you've been causing a lot of trouble for the other students and teachers," Sycamore said.

"Uh-huh. Where are we going with this? I want to go home and sulk in my room before I go and throw all my mom's jewelry into the street outside."

"All right, I'll just get down to business then. I'm sure you know that you need to have a Pokémon by the end of this school year, right?"

Lena grumbled something under her breath.

"You know that, right? It's the same for all regions. Do you have one? Your teachers tell me that you don't, and that you haven't been able to participate in classes that require you to have one."

"Yeah, I don't have one," Lena snapped. "Big deal."

"Well, it _is_ a big deal," Sycamore said. "If you can't get one by the end of this year, the school may permanently expell you. I might be able to convince the headmaster into letting you stay for a second year, but..."

Lena grimaced. So she would get expelled if she didn't have a Pokémon by the end of the school year. Great. Just great. Maybe her mother would let her use Raichu...

"I'll get one, I guess," Lena grumbled. "Can I leave now?"

"One more thing," Sycamore said. "Try to make some friends. I know you scared everyone off, but I'm sure some of them would be willing to overlook your actions if you acted pleasant towards them."

"Sorry, pleasant isn't one of my personalities."

Sycamore frowned then. He rubbed at his chin, seeming to be deep in thought. "Hmm... I wonder..."

Lena was wondering how her teacher got his hair to swoop around in that way it did. Did he use hair spray? Hair gel? Or... was it all-natural?

"Lena, would you be willing to visit me at my lab this weekend?" Sycamore asked. "I could use your help."

Lena stared at Sycamore blankly. "Uh, sure, I'll think about it."

She wasn't going to think about it. What she _was_ going to do this weekend was sit around, eat bowls of sugary cereal, and watch mind-numbing TV.

Lena was dismissed. She left the school building, passed students who she ignored as they stared at her (probably talking about how it was the crazy transfer student), and headed on home.

* * *

><p>"Mom," Lena said as they watched the end of some stupid romantic-comedy movie. "Can I use your Raichu for school?"<p>

"Nope, get your own Pokémon."

She'd expected as much.

"By the way," her mother said, "your teacher called. Professor Sycamore? He told me that he offered for you to help him out at his lab this weekend. He wanted to check and make sure it was okay with me. Isn't that nice of him?"

That son of a-

"So I told him you'd be going to his lab tomorrow," she said.

"...Why."

"Because you need something to do, instead of moping around, whining about how you miss your friends and how there's nothing on TV," her mother said. "So. You're helping out Professor Sycamore."

"Ugh. But he's weird. His hair goes in weird directions, and he acts like he knows everything, and I don't like him."

Her mother stared at Lena, whose hair also went in some questionable directions.

"You're going."

"I hate you."

"What was that?"

"Nothing.

* * *

><p>Her mother woke her up early the next morning, forced her to get ready, and then even accompanied Lena to her teacher's lab.<p>

"He's a very widely known professor," her mother was saying on the walk there. "He became a teacher here in Santalune at the headmaster's request. I don't know what he studies, though. Guess we're gonna find out."

Lena was basically half-asleep as she walked down the road, and didn't hear a word her mother had said.

They arrived at the lab, a tall building with two pillars on either side of the entrance, with a stone Poké Ball on each pillar. A fence surrounded the outside.

"Here we are," her mother said. "Sycamore Research-"

"Whatever," Lena interrupted, pushing open the front door and walking out into a room lined with bookshelves. There were halls leading further into the lab, and stairs heading up to the second floor. A woman sat behind a desk there in the room, and she was smiling at them as they came in.

"We're here to see Professor Sycamore," her mother said, using her "nice person" voice. "This is one of the professor's students? Lena? I told him she would help him out this weekend."

"You said it was just for today," Lena hissed.

"Yeah? Well, I lied."

"I hate you."

Her mother smacked the back of her head this time, then smiled at the receptionist like she hadn't just slapped Lena upside the head.

"I'll call and tell him you're here," the receptionist said.

Lena grumbled profanities under her breath as she rubbed the back of her head. Why did she have to be here? Why did her mother tell Sycamore she'd be helping him out _all weekend?_

"Ah, there's my little helper!" a voice said down the hall to their right. Lena turned to find her teacher walking down the hall towards them.

Her mother whistled. "He's _handsome."_

"And _you're_ married," Lena said.

"Doesn't mean I can't appreciate other men, Lena. Your dad doesn't care, anyway."

"Well, he should. If he knew you were acting like you wanted to molest my teach-"

Her mother covered Lena's mouth as Sycamore reached them. "Hello there," her mother said. "I'm Robin, Lena's mother."

"Ah, yes, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Well, Lena, let's head back into the lab. There're a few things I'd like to show you."

Her mother released Lena, who shot her a glare as she reluctantly followed Sycamore back down the hall.

"Have a nice time," her mother called.

Lena stopped herself from telling her mother to not-so-politely go do something vulgar to herself. Because she had a feeling that if she had, her mother would've hunted her down and buried her six feet under the ground. Alive.

With that in mind, she followed her teacher into the further areas of the lab, feeling that this was all just one, big, terrible idea.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: And that's the first chapter. Yeah, it's about as exciting as watching paint dry. The next chapter is more interesting, but I need to look over it for mistakes before I post it.<p>

Things will be explained later on, such as why they live on an airship instead of on the ground, and other various things.


	2. Chapter 2: VS Espurr

Author's Notes: And here's the second chapter. I've come to the conclusion that if I post a chapter a day, I can probably get pretty far within the story.

Also, I totally wound up planning a ton of the story today, which I said I wouldn't do, but I was bored and it was a long car ride and I didn't have a notebook or my laptop, only a tiny notebook not suitable for writing long stories in... I'm very picky about my notebooks. But I'm getting off topic. I planned a lot, is what I'm trying to say. AND I'M PUMPED. I CAN'T WAIT.

I feel the need to mention that this story won't just feature Kalos characters. It's going to feature EVERYONE. EVERY. ONE. FROM. EVERY. THING. (Okay, not everything, but a lot of things.)

Anyway, enjoy the chapter. If anyone's reading, that is...

* * *

><p>Chapter 2: VS Espurr<p>

Lena followed Sycamore through the lab. They stopped at a room with a long window in front of it. On the other side of the window were all sorts of medical equipment, and laying on a table, fast asleep, was a blue and white frog-like Pokémon.

"This is where we take care of injured Pokémon," Sycamore said. "As you can see here, we already have a Pokémon we're taking care of. Your classmate Calem found this Froakie and brought it here for care."

Lena just stared. This was boring.

"Nowadays, Pokémon Centers are so crowded and taking care of so many wild Pokémon that it's hard for a Pokémon to get just the right treatment. That's why Calem brought this Froakie to us; its leg was broken rather badly, but from what, we don't know."

Lena still said nothing.

"Quiet, aren't you?" Sycamore said. "Well, then, let's go on to our next location."

Lena followed her teacher down the hall again. They turned at a few corners, then stopped in front of a pair of doors. Sycamore held open the door for Lena, who stepped outside into a field. There was green grass everywhere she looked, and a little pond, along with several trees. But when she looked up, she found that a domed, glass ceiling was above them. They were still indoors.

There were a couple of people in that outdoor-indoor room. They looked up as Sycamore and Lena walked in.

"Oh! She's here, she's here!" said a girl who was probably just as tiny as Lena was, with tanned skin and four pigtails, two on the bottom, and two more that looped over the first pair. She was wearing a bright pink shirt dotted with ribbons, shorts, and sandals.

The three other people hurried along after that girl, who rushed over to Lena and Sycamore. Lena stepped back instinctively, but the girl ignored her actions, taking her hands and shaking them. "I'm Shauna, do you remember me?"

"Uh, why would I remember you?"

"Because we're _classmates,_ that's why!"

Shit. They were classmates. Now that Lena thought about it, she _did_ recognize this girl, just a little bit. She'd been one of the first people to talk to Lena.

Lena looked around at the other three people. There was a larger boy, with black hair, in a black t-shirt with some Pokémon on the front, and yellow pants. A smaller boy, probably smaller than both Shauna and Lena, with bright orange hair, wearing a green vest over a white shirt, and dark pants. And the three person was a girl, taller than Lena, with long, honey-colored hair, dressed in a black and red dress. Thigh-high black socks covered her legs, and she wore a pinkish red hat.

"Hey, it's the crazy new kid from class," the black-haired boy said. "How come you're here? Helping out Professor Sycamore, too?"

"No, I was tricked by the evil monster that is my mother into coming here so she could drool over our teacher," Lena said.

Everyone looked at her. "What?"

"What what?" Lena asked.

"Anyway," Sycamore said, apparently unbothered by Lena's statement. "Everyone, this is Lena. She'll be helping me out for a couple of days."

"Are you sure that's wise, Professor?" the orange-haired boy said. "She... um... has been doing some questionable things during school."

"Exactly, thank you," Lena said. "This is why I'm a terrible candidate for-"

"She's a changed woman, Trevor," Sycamore said. "She's turning over a new leaf to become friends with all of you."

"I am _not!"_ Lena snapped.

But no one listened to her. As usual.

"Guys, introduce yourselves!" Shauna squealed.

"Righto! I'm Tierno. Dancing is my life."

"I'm... Trevor. Er. I help out the professor from time to time."

"And I'm Serena. Eh, I'm just along with them 'cause I'm bored shitless."

"And I'm SHAUNA!" Shauna said, introducing herself again for some unknown reason.

"Great," Lena said, making sure to sound as bored as possible with this. She was. She just wanted to go home and watch Saturday morning cartoons. Why did she have to be here with all these weird people that she didn't want to be around with?

"I'll let you kids get acquainted," Sycamore said, turning and leaving the room. "I'll be somewhere in the lab, if you need me."

And he left, dumping off Lena in a foreign area like some kind of package he didn't care about. Her mother was probably in on this part, too. She probably knew these kids were going to be here. She was under the impression that Lena desperately needed new friends to replace the old ones she'd been forced to leave behind.

"So, Lena, do you have your own Pokémon yet?" Shauna asked.

"Can it dance?" Tierno asked.

"Can I see it?" Trevor asked. "O-Only for research purposes, of course."

"I'm hungry," Serena said, staring off into space.

"No, I don't," Lena said. "And I don't plan to."

The four exchanged glances. Then Shauna, Tierno, and Serena burst out laughing. Trevor was frowning, on the other hand.

"You don't have any Pokémon?" Trevor asked. "That's serious! You could be unable to continue your schooling! You don't want that, do you?!"

Seeing how concerned Trevor looked, Lena decided that the best answer to his question was, "I would _love_ that."

"W-what?!"

"She... says she doesn't have a Pokémon!" Serena laughed, holding her sides and doubling over. "Ahaha! But seriously," she continued and wiped at her eyes. She straightened up and faced Lena. "What kind of Pokémon do you have?"

"I was serious. I don't."

They stopped laughing.

"No, that can't be!" Shauna grabbed Lena's hands. Lena yanked them free. "If you don't have a Pokémon, you won't be able to finish school with us! You have to get a Pokémon!"

"Yeah, yeah," Tierno said. "Oh, I've got an idea! You should ask Professor Sycamore if he has any Pokémon to give you!"

Lena frowned. "You think I want a Pokémon? I don't. That's why I still haven't gotten one yet. I don't _care_ if I finish school or not. All I want is to head back home to Sinnoh to be with my friends."

They were silent.

"So you were intending to get a Pokémon in Sinnoh, then?" Trevor asked. "Why didn't you get one already? You had plenty of time. Students are allowed to own Pokémon once they reached their first year of high school. You had almost three years to get a Pokémon."

"Trevs got a point," Tierno said. "Why were you holding out for so long?"

Now they were ganging up on her? Jeez. This was why she didn't want to come to this place. Her friends back home wouldn't have-

–Actually. They _had_ been pestering her to get her own Pokémon, so...

"I'll get one," Lena said. "I just... you know... want it to be a special one. I don't want some super common Pokémon. I want something totally awesome."

"There're plenty of awesome Pokémon here in the city!" Shauna said. "I've got a Chestnaught, and a Goodra, and a Sylveon!"

Lena couldn't come up with images of those Pokémon in her mind at all. She'd never even heard of them. They must have been Kalos Pokémon, then.

"I want a Sinnoh Pokémon," Lena said.

"Good luck finding one," Serena said. "Hey, if you find one, tell me. I'd like to add a Sinnoh Pokémon to my gang."

"You already have three Pokémon, Serena," Trevor said. "Us third-years are only allowed to have three Pokémon. Then-"

"Stop being so serious, Trevs," Tierno said.

Trevor frowned. "But it's a serious problem," he said. "She doesn't have a single Pokémon. She'll get expelled at this rate."

"I always thought the whole 'getting expelled for a lack of Pokémon' thing to be a load of crap. I mean, does not owning a Pokémon really warrant being permanently expelled?" Tierno said.

"Those are the rules," Trevor said.

"Why're you so concerned if the new kid gets expelled?" Serena asked.

"Yeah, what is it? You got a crush on her or something?"

"WHAT?!" Trevor shouted. "I-I-I would never... _We just met!"_

"So? It could be like love at first sight."

"I don't like her! She's rude, and she writes nasty things on the boards at school, and she insults everyone she talks to!"

"She hasn't insulted any of us yet, not today," Shauna said. "That's 'cause we're already the best of friends! Isn't that right, Lenny?"

"Don't nickname me," Lena snapped. "You want me to insult you guys? Fine!

"Shauna, you're loud and obnoxious and you need to stop touching my hands!

"Tierno, those shorts look horrible on you. You look like something my mom's Raichu puked, ate, and then promptly shit out again.

"Trevor, GROW A COUPLE OF INCHES.

"And Serena, you're just a total moron. You've been staring off into space like some kind of stupid Magikarp, and it's creeping me out!

"Happy now? I insulted each and every one of you! And if you want, I'll insult our freak-ass teacher, too! He's a freak! Whose hair goes like that? He needs to _shave._ He's pushy and annoying and he convinced my mother into forcing me to come here!

"I HATE YOU ALL. NEVER TALK TO ME AGAIN, OR I SWEAR TO ARCEUS I WILL CASTRATE ALL OF YOU, THEN FEED YOUR CASTRATED PARTS TO MY MOM'S RAICHU SO IT CAN SHIT OUT THINGS THE EXACT COLOR OF TIERNO'S DAMN SHORTS."

Everyone stared at her in shock. Lena whirled around and found Sycamore standing there, also looking shocked. Lena screamed at him until he moved out of the way of the doors, then she rushed off through the halls.

She left the lab. Her mother was waiting outside.

"Leaving already? I knew you wouldn't last fifteen minutes. Get back in there," her mother said.

"No!" Lena shouted. "I want to go _home!_ I hate it here! All the people are annoying! I want to go back to my old friends, to my old house, to my old school! I don't know why you made me move here, I hate it, I want to go home right now, right now, RIGHT NOW!"

Without waiting for her mother's response, Lena ran off.

* * *

><p>Lena rubbed at her cheeks, trying to make the tears disappear. She really wanted to go home, but since she was stuck on a flying ship at the moment, this was pretty unlikely. Also, she would have to find her way onto a ship heading for Sinnoh, and then she'd have to wait for the Jubilife ship to come down to the ground, and it was all just too much work.<p>

She was stuck here.

"Get out of here, you mangy Pokémon!" someone nearby shouted. Lena looked up as something smashed, and then a Pokémon ran out from around a building, being chased by a man with a broomstick. The Pokémon turned in Lena's direction, then ran towards her.

Lena recognized it... It was that purple-gray cat-like Pokémon she'd seen when she first moved here. It surely wasn't the same one, right?

It passed by her and continued off down the street.

"And you," the man said, pointing at her. "Don't think you can go through my garbage and find something to find that stupid Pokémon."

"Didn't cross my mind until now, so thanks for the idea."

"I'm serious. I'll call the cops if you do. It's my property."

"All right, calm down. I'm not going to steal your garbage."

Lena watched the man headed back indoors. She sighed, then looked behind herself. The Pokémon was gone... or so she thought. It was peeked out at her from around a corner up ahead.

"_Mraaaowr."_

"I got nothing for you," Lena snapped, then continued walking in the opposite direction. Feeling as if it was following her, she looked back, but it wasn't. Good. It knew she wasn't in the mood to be messed with right then.

Lena sighed. Her mother was going to be really angry. Not only because she'd thrown a fit outside Sycamore's lab, but because of all the stuff she'd said to those kids in the lab. She didn't feel too bad about it, though. They had it coming... right?

Maybe she could jump off the side of the ship... but no. There was an invisible shield around the ship, she knew that much, to prevent such things from accidentally (or intentionally) happening. Apparently the shield was made by psychic Pokémon, but she didn't know how many or what kind could produce a shield like this. When she was little, she and one of her friends held a contest to see who could strike the shield with rocks the most times. They had been caught and reprimanded by a passing adult before they could get too far into their game.

Lena stopped walking. She was being pathetic. She just needed to suck it up and deal with the situation, but it was too hard for her. She wanted to be home, with her friends, with her mother and father, before her father was accepted as a Gym Leader's assistant in another region. They had briefly considered moving to be with him when that had happened, but her father had talked her mother out of doing so, saying that he'd feel bad if Lena was separated from her friends. That had been years ago.

Apparently he had no say in this move.

"_Mraaowr._"

Lena looked back and found that bizarre cat Pokémon standing behind her, staring up at Lena with those creepy, emotionless eyes. It was a creepy Pokémon, when it came down to it.

"Hey," Lena said, bending down in front of it. "Are you that same Pokémon from a couple of weeks ago?"

"_Mraowr."_

"I bet you are, aren't you. You're alone, too. But I'm alone because I want to be."

The Pokémon stared at her blankly.

Hesitating, Lena held out her hand to the Pokémon. It looked at her outstretched hand, then hissed and ran away.

"Yeah. You're alone 'cause you want to be, too, huh?" Lena mumbled. It was worth a shot, though she couldn't imagine herself with a Pokémon like that. Besides, it wasn't a Sinnoh Pokémon like she wanted. She wanted a Piplup like her friend back home had. A proud Pokémon that was colored her favorite color; blue.

Lena stood up and started walking away, when she spotted a familiar but unwelcome face up ahead. It was that pretty boy she'd beat up on her first day of school, wearing a blue and white jacket over dark pants and boots.

He'd noticed her, too.

"Ugh, you?" he said. "I specifically didn't go to the professor's lab because I'd heard you were going to be there. Now you're here in front of me? Damn it... I have no luck."

"Shove a cork in it, jackass," Lena said. "I didn't want to run into you and your ugly ass face anyway. Why don't you run on home and stare at yourself in the mirror like you already do?"

The boy's face turned red. "I don't do that at all."

"Yeah? Your perfectly-styled hair says otherwise."

"I-I got this done at a salon!"

"Oh, even better. You go to a salon to get your hair cut. Know who cuts my hair? My mom. And sometimes, I do my own hair."

"Did you do it yourself this time, because it looks pretty terrible right now."

"You know what? Go fu-"

"_MRAAOOWWRRR!"_

Lena stopped as the cat Pokémon ran out from behind her and attacked Pretty Boy. He started screaming, swatting at the Pokémon as it slashed at his boots. It climbed up one of his legs, tearing up his pants with its claws. As it neared his waist, it sunk its teeth down into his thigh. Pretty Boy naturally shrieked.

"Yeah! Get 'em, mystery Pokémon! GET HIM!"

"Get it off, get it off, getitoff!"

Pretty Boy swatted at the Pokémon with a particularly hard swing of his arm, smacking it off his leg and to the ground. Mystery Pokémon ran off, apparently frightened by his actions.

"You psycho, was that your Pokémon?"

"No."

"You're a liar! Just you wait, I'll report you and that Pokémon to the school, and you'll get expelled before this school year is up!"

"And I... don't care," Lena said.

Pretty Boy ran (or rather, limped, because he was dramatic) off and out of sight. Lena turned to search for the mystery Pokémon, but it had disappeared again.

"Hrmm..."

"LENA, THERE YOU ARE!"

Lena cringed at the loud sound of a girl's voice. She spun around to find Shauna and Serena running towards her.

"Was that Calem I just saw?" Serena asked as they reached her.

"Calem? Oh, you mean Mr. Pretty Boy who just got beat up by a Pokémon smaller than his boot? Yeah, that was him."

"Why did a Pokémon beat him up, though?" Shauna asked.

"I... honestly don't remember. He hit it, though, and it ran off." Lena shrugged. "I think it likes me or something. It's been following me."

Shauna gasped and started flailing her arms around like an overly excited four-year-old. "Oh, my gosh! That's a great idea! You should find that Pokémon and catch it!"

Lena stared at her like she was stupid. She was, but that was beside the point. "I told you," Lena said, "I want a Sinnoh Pokémon. I don't think it's a Sinnoh Pokémon."

"Besides," Serena added, "I didn't see any Pokémon on our way here. It must've gone down a different road or something. But anyway..."

Serena turned back to Lena, smiling because she was stupid, too. "Let's head back to the professor's lab. We decided to give you some time to cool down. Your mom's worried about you."

"My mom? Worried? Don't make me laugh."

"She really was, though!" Shauna said. "She was all, 'Oh, I hope Lena doesn't get herself into trouble. She doesn't usually lose it like this. She must be overwhelmed. If we follow after her now, she might actually murder us and hide the body in a garbage can. And-'"

"Hey," Serena said. "Why do you have such terrible memory with everything else, but you can remember what Lena's mom said, word for word?"

"I've been doing brain puzzles, lately," Shauna said proudly.

"Yeah, real good it's doing you."

Lena sighed. These two could go on forever... or at least, she felt that they could. "Can you show me the way back to the lab?" Lena asked. "Might as well hear my mom scream now rather than later."

And they headed back to the lab.

* * *

><p>Calem was at the lab, much to Lena's disappointment.<p>

"And some wild Espurr came out of nowhere and _attacked me_ at that bitch's orders!"

"Calem, I understand that you're angry," Sycamore said, attempting to calm him down, "but..."

"That 'bitch's' mother is standing right here," Tierno said.

"I don't care! I'm sure she knows her daughter's a complete and utter bitch!

Trevor pointed as Lena walked into the lab with Serena and Shauna. "Ah, there she is!"

They all looked up as they walked in. Calem shot glares at her while Lena's mother rushed up to the three of them.

"Thank you for finding her, Serena," her mother said.

"Huh? I never told you my name," Serena said.

But Lena's mother ignored her. "Lena, why did you say such terrible things to these people? Apologize right now!"

Lena snapped, "No. They were asking for it."

"It wasn't all that bad, ma'am, really," Tierno said. "It's nothing she needs to apologize for."

"She told me I need to grow a couple of inches," Trevor muttered.

"Well, you kinda need to. It's not like the rest of your family is short or something. It looks like you're just the odd one out."

"Well, she can apologize to me, then!" Calem shouted. He turned to her and pointed at his bleeding leg. "Look at what your Pokémon did to me!"

"I'm telling you, it wasn't my Pokémon," Lena said.

"Yeah, I think it was wild, Calem," Shauna said.

"W-Wild?! I could be infected with rabies! I need to go to a doctor! Professor, please help me!"

"There's a wild Espurr running through the streets?" Sycamore asked, instead of being concerned for Calem's potential rabies infection. "That reminds me... he said he..."

Calem suddenly screamed and pointed at the entrance. "T-There! There it is! Staring me down, wanting to take another chomp out of my leg!"

"That's not what I would call a chomp...," Shauna mumbled.

"Shut up, Shauna! It's a chomp when you compare it to its body size!"

Sure enough, standing in the entrance of the lab was the Pokémon. It was still staring at them all with that blank emotionless face. It pattered down the carpeted floor, and clung to Lena's leg. "_Mraaoowr."_

"What do you want?" Lena grumbled.

Sycamore laughed out loud. "Can't you see, Lena? That Pokémon's taken a liking to you. I think it wants to be your friend."

"FRIEND?!" Calem shrieked. "I'M DYING OVER HERE, AND WHEN THE POKEMON THAT COMMITTED THIS HEINOUS CRIME POPS UP, ALL YOU SAY IS THAT IT WANTS TO BE HER _FRIEND?!"_

"It doesn't have rabies, you're not dying," Sycamore said.

"But the professor has a point," Trevor said, staring at the Pokémon. "I think it really does want to be with you. Why else would it attack Calem for you?"

"YOU'RE TAKING THAT BITCH'S SIDE?!"

"No." Trevor frowned. "I'm just stating the facts, is all."

"WELL, TAKE A LOOK AT MY LEG AND STATE THE FACTS FOR IT!"

"I state facts, not examine legs, Calem."

Lena was busy ignoring all of them and staring down at the Pokémon that clung to her leg. Espurr, it had been called?

She looked at her mother, who was staring at her in minor concern. "...Mom."

"Yes?"

"Can I... keep this Espurr? As my own?"

Everyone except for Calem (who was still freaking out about his leg) looked at Lena in surprise.

"Are you sure, Lena?" her mother asked. But Lena could see in her eyes that she wanted Lena to choose this Espurr as her Pokémon. Lena wasn't sure how she knew, but her mother definitely wanted her to keep it. Even so, her mother said, "Your first Pokémon should be special..."

"Oh, it's special all right," Lena said, grinning. "It beat the shit out of Calem for me."

"YOU BITCH."

"If you want it, then keep it," her mother said.

Lena turned back to the Espurr, bending down in front of it. "How about it, Espurr?" she asked. "Want to be my Pokémon?"

Espurr stared at her for half a second before it nodded. Did it even know what it had agreed to? And yet... and yet... Lena was sure that it knew exactly what it had agreed to.

Everyone was silent. "Okay," Calem said, "am I the _only_ one bothered with her accepting a murderous Pokmeon as her partner?"

"Calem, shut up," Serena said.

"But you'll need a Poké Ball to keep it in," Sycamore said. "Do you have one?"

"No," Lena said. "We need no Poké Ball! We're bound together by friendship!"

"Er, the school rules state that you need to keep your Pokémon in a Poké Ball," Trevor said.

"Oh... Does anyone have one?"

She looked around the room, but everyone shook their heads.

Everyone except Sycamore.

"Follow me, Lena," Sycamore said. "There's someone I'd like you to meet."

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: No one's ever going to guess who Professor Sycamore is taking them to meet. And if you somehow manage to guess who... I... don't know what I'll do.<p>

Also, my favorite line from this chapter is "I state facts, not examine legs, Calem."


	3. Chapter 3: VS Espurr II

Author's Notes: Had to name this chapter VS Espurr II because it does feature Espurr, but other than that, there are no other Pokemon in the chapter.

Really trying to stick to this "chapter a day" thing. It's hard, because I'm very forgetful, and sometimes I don't feel like getting on the computer.

Also, no one expected that the mystery character was going to be Bill. I included him because I have a soft spot for him. He has a special place in my heart. Also, for various other reasons.

I know this story is starting slow, but this is just the introduction arc, as I like to call it. The next chapter will end this little thing of getting a Pokemon and getting friends. (Mind you, I'm a sucker for friendshippy stories, which may be why I did this like the way I did.)

Thanks to the people who followed this story and the single person who's faved it so far. I'm not the kind of person who cares about popularity, so I'll keep writing even if I have very few faves and reviews.

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: VS Espurr II<p>

Lena obediently followed Sycamore through his lab, followed by her mother, Serena, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, and even Calem, for some reason. She held Espurr in her arms, and the Pokémon remained there, unmoving mostly, except to look around the room. They were definitely going somewhere else in the lab, given that they had gone down the left hall instead of the one on the right, and-

"Blahblahblah," Serena said.

"Blahblahblah?" Shauna asked.

"Blahahah!" Tierno laughed.

…Lena had no idea what they were saying, but it sure as hell sounded just like that to her ears. She hoped she hadn't finally gone crazy and that this wasn't just a dream. Because she had a Pokémon... and she had to admit that she really liked it.

Sycamore stopped at a room with the door slightly ajar. He lightly knocked on the door frame. "Are you decent?" he asked.

A male voice shouted back, "D-Don't make it sound like I walk 'round someone else's lab naked!"

Lena was taken aback by voice. It was heavily accented, though she, for the life of her tiny, tiny brain, couldn't figure out where the accent was from.

Sycamore pushed open the door, revealing the room beyond it. There were many computers lining the walls, and several ones on the floor, taken apart and pieces lying around on the floor. Now standing up from the floor was a young man, with light brown hair, wearing a polo shirt and khaki pants.

Espurr held out a tiny hand to the man. "_Mraaowr."_

The man's eyes widened. "Hey! You must be that Pokémon that tagged 'long with me on the ship!"

"Uh... what?" Lena said. She honestly had no idea what was going on.

"This is Bill, from the Kanto region," Sycamore said, holding out his hand to Bill, as though he were a prized trophy on a shelf and he was proud to present him. "He's here to fix a problem with the computers here in the city," he continued. "He came onto the ship with your Espurr, but he lost it."

"Well, it ain't like it's my Pokémon or anythin'," Bill said a bit sheepishly. "But, glad to see you're all right... Espurr, was it?"

Lena turned to Sycamore. "...Did you seriously bring me here to meet a man who had a sexy encounter with Espurr?"

Bill did a double take. "Who in the heck said anythin' 'bout a sexy encounter?!"

"Sounded pretty sexy to me. Came onto the shiop with you, and you two parted ways in such a sudden manner..."

"No... Like I said, what's sexy 'bout that?!"

"It's because she's a freaking moron," Calem said. "I can't believe you're keeping that psychotic Pokémon," he grumbled, folding his arms across his chest in an apparent pout. "Then again, a psychotic Pokémon for a psychotic child..."

"You do realize we're the same age, right?" Lena said.

"I highly doubt that."

Espurr took time out to hiss at Calem, then turn back to Bill.

"But really, why'd you bring these kids in here?" Bill asked. "I got work to do! I need to figure out what's goin' on with all these computers... Everythin's been goin' out of whack lately, don't know what's goin' on. I already visited the other regions to fix their PC problems, but no I hear Kanto's goin' back out of whack, and-"

"I just thought you wanted to see the Espurr you lost," Sycamore said, with a sad tone to his voice. He turned to Espurr. "You mean to say you don't care about the fate of this cute wittle Pokémon?" he asked, poking Espurr's outstretched hand and proceeding to make kissing faces at it.

Espurr stared at him like he'd lost his mind.

Bill was staring at him in the same way. "Er... I never said that. But, er, I already said my thin's to it, so can y'all leave so I can do my work? It's hard thinkin' when y'all are around me, babblin' away."

"Blah, blah, blah," Serena, Shauna, and Tierno said.

They left the room. Lena was starting to get the feeling that Serena, Shauna, and Tierno actually were saying "blah", and that it wasn't just her imagination.

"So you came on this ship with that Bill guy, huh?" Lena said, taking Espurr's little hand and shaking it around.

"_Mraowr."_

"He might not act like it, but he was really worried about that Espurr," Sycamore said. "The entire first day he was here, it was just, 'What 'bout that Pokémon that ran off? I sure hope it ain't dead in a gutter somewhere!'"

"HEY!" Bill's vocie shouted further down the hall. "DON'T BE SPREADIN' LIES 'BOUT ME!"

Sycamore lowered his voice. "He couldn't even focus on making repairs, poor thing. I had a feeling it was the same Espurr, because you don't usually see Espurr on this ship. They usually reside in Lumiose City, or-"

"I WAS FOCUSIN' ON MY WORK, STOP SAYIN' STUFF!"

"So I got myself an uncommon Pokémon after all," Lena mumbled.

Espurr bit her finger, but she didn't care. It only stung a little bit. If this was what Calem was complaining about, then he needed to grow up and stop acting like a baby.

Though she knew full well, however, that this was only a love bite, and that Calem had received Espurr's full-on "I''m going to kill you right here and now" bite.

She decided that she didn't really need to sweat the small details.

As they arrived back out in the main room, Lena decided upon something.

She turned to the others, feeling like this was a bad, terrible idea. "Um, you guys?" she began.

"Blah?" Serena, Shauna, and Tierno said.

"Okay, _why_ do you guys keep on saying that?" Trevor asked.

"We honestly thought it would take a shorter amount of time for someone to comment on it," Tierno said with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

"But what's up, Lenny?" Serena asked.

Lena resisted the urge to snap at the nickname. She took in a deep breath and exhaled. Okay. She could do this. It wasn't that bad. "Er. You know, um, I'm, er..." Espurr gave her a particularly rough love bite. "OW."

She turned to face all of them, Espurr gnawing on her finger like it was a tasty treat. "I'm just going to get this out, real fast, not caring about quality.

"I'm really sorry that I snapped at all of you like that. I didn't mean it... I think. I was just really frustrated, and I'm not good with people I don't know, so... I'm sorry I insulted you guys."

"Apology accepted," Calem said. Lena and Espurr glared at him in unison.

"I'm not apologizing to _you,_ jackass. You deserved what you got. I was apologizing to the people who deserved the apology... Shauna and Serena and Tierno and Trevor and Syca- er, Professor Sycamore, and my mom."

Shauna was shaking. Lena stared at her. "Uh, what's wrong with-"

Shauna let out a scream and threw her arms around Lena, pulling her into a hug. "I knew it, see? I knew we'd become friends! This is so amazing!"

Lena grimaced. Shauna seemed to really like physical contact. Ugh.

"You want to be her _friend?!"_ Calem shouted. "She... Wha... I cannot believe you! No, wait, I _can_ believe it... Shauna will befriend anyone, even if they tried to kill her."

Shauna puffed out her cheeks. "That's so not true!"

"Need I mention your Chesnaught? When it was a Chespin, it held you at Razor Leaf-point until we gave it a PokePuff!"

"Because it wanted a green one, Calem!"

"SHAUNA, IT HELD YOU HOSTAGE FOR A POKEPUFF!"

"Now, let's not fight," Sycamore – no, Professor Sycamore – said. "Lena, if you'll wait out here for a moment, I'll get you a Poké Ball for Espurr."

"Thank you, sir," Lena said as the professor left to go retrieve a Poké Ball.

Calem was still glaring at Lena. She looked up at him and gave him the most smug smile she could manage. Calem grit his teeth, spuna round, and walked down the hall that Lena had first gone down with Professor Sycamore when she arrived there. Lena noted that he was now walking normally, without the dramatic limp from before.

Professor Sycamore came back, holding a red-and-white ball in his hand. The top half of the ball was red, the bottom half white, and there was a button in the center of it. It was, without a doubt, a Poké Ball. There was no mistaking it.

"Here you are, Lena," he said, holding it out to her. "You know how to use it, right?"

"Of course I do," Lena said. Then, a second later, she added, "Of course I do _not_ know how to use a Poké Ball!"

"Is she joking?" Tierno whispered to Serena.

"Beats me," Serena whispered back.

"It's quite simple, really," Professor Sycamore said. "You just-"

"WAIT, LET ME SHOW HER!" Shauna screamed. Everyone except Espurr cringed from the volume of her voice. Good Arceus, she was loud.

Shauna took the Poké Ball, practically bouncing with excitement. "Okay, okay!" she said. "First, you tap the- OH! You need to do it! Here, take the ball, and then tap the Pokémon with it..."

Lena took the ball and tapped it on Espurr's head. Nothing happened. She noted her mother hiding her face in embarrassment.

"No, with the _button_, silly!" Shauna said, playfully shoving Lena.

Lena decided to just pretend she'd known that. "I was just kidding," she said.

"No, you didn't," her mother muttered.

Lena tapped Espurr with the button on the Poké Ball. The ball opened up, and Espurr was sucked inside. The ball shut, and Lena caught it before it dropped to the ground. She could feel the ball rocking back in forth in the palm of her hand for a few seconds... and then, it stopped.

"Now, strike a cool pose with it and say, 'I caught an Espurr!'" Shauna said.

Lena thrust the ball into the air and shouted, "I CAUGHT AN ESPURR!"

"WOOHOO!" Serena shouted, throwing her arms up in the air. "ESPURR, GETTO DAZE!"

"Serena's been watching that TV show starring that Ash Ketchum kid, hasn't she?" Tierno asked.

"Apparently she has," Trevor said.

"Well, shall we continue with our research?" Professor Sycamore suggested. "Miss Robin, I believe we have everything settled here. You can head on home, if you wish."

Lena's mother smiled. "Of course."

"Stop that," Lena said. "Stop looking at my teacher like you want to tie him to a bed and lic-"

Her mother slammed into it with a powerful Tackle attack. Two arms wrapped around Lena, hugging her tight. Her mother's face was mere centimeters from her own.

"We don't talk about that in front of other people, Lena," she whispered in a deadly calm voice.

"Aw, parental bonding!" Shauna said.

–Her mother was clever, disguising a vicious tackle as an over-zealous hug. A clever woman she was, indeed.

"Let's go to the outdoor room!" Shauna said. "Come on, Lena! Oh, my gosh, we should have a nickname for you!"

"I already decided on a nickname for her," Serena said proudly, as Lena's mother got off of her and Lena ran to Serena, Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor in fear. "It's Lenny. Doesn't that fit her?"

"Oh. My. Gosh. She _totally_ looks like a Lenny!" Shauna screamed.

"Must you keep on screaming?" Trevor asked.

"Anyway," Tierno said, "I'm T-Bone, Trevor is Trevs, and Shauna is Shauny. Serena is Commander S, and Calem's nickname changes daily."

"We usually just call him King Calem when he starts acting like he's the greatest person in the world," Shauna said.

Lena would bet money that he acted like that all the time.

They passed by the room with the frog Pokémon in it. Calem was in there talking to a woman in a lab coat. He glanced at the frog Pokémon, then caught them walking by and glared at Lena. Lena stuck out her tongue at him because she was a very mature sixteen-year-old girl.

* * *

><p>Lena lay in bed that night, thinking about how her day had gone. She hadn't been expecting this outcome at all. She had gotten her first Pokémon today, and even made some sort-of friends...<p>

The oddest part was, she felt like she kind of enjoyed hanging out with those people. Professor Sycamore had taught them some things today that Lena had already forgotten about. Tierno had performed a dance routine with his Pokémon, Trevor had bored them senseless with information he knew about certain Pokémon, Shauna kept hugging Lena and grabbing her hands, and they had all watched Serena stare at a wall for eight minutes while barely blinking.

And since Lena didn't give two shits about Calem, she hadn't noted what he'd done. Had he even been there in the outdoor room with them?

Even odder was that she was looking forward to going back to the lab tomorrow. She'd even told Shauna and the ohters "See you tomorrow!" without thinking.

Ugh. They were rubbing off on her. This wasn't how things were supposed to be. She wanted to be back home in Sinnoh, with her actual friends.

It was like she was cheating on them or something.

A crinkling sound caught Lena's attention. She bolted upright in her bed, looking around the darkened room, until her eyes fell upon Espurr. It sat at the bookshelf in her room, holding a wide book in its hands, staring at it blankly.

Its purple eyes seemed to glow in the dark as it tore off a corner of the page and stuffed it into its mouth.

Lena quickly lay back down in bed. She'd just pretend she hadn't seen that.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Lena woke up earlier than usual, even before her mother did, which was incredibly unusual. She pulled on a pair of shorts and a plain shirt before she left the house, and headed on throught the streets of Santalune.<p>

The morning was chilly. Lena wished she had brought a jacket with herself, but it had never crossed her mind at all. Espurr trotted alongside her in silence, unbothered by the chill of the morning.

They reached the lab after a bit of wandering about. She tried the front door of the lab, and it was open. She'd expected them to be locked, since it wasn't even eight in the morning yet. The lab on the other side of the door was dark, and the receptionist from the day before wasn't there.

Espurr ducked in through the cracked-open door and bounced inside. Lena stepped on inside, closing the door behind herself. The halls connected to that main room were illuminated, oddly enough.

"_MRAAAAOOWR!"_

There was no response... at least, not an immediate one. About a minute later, Lena heard a sleepy voice come from the left hallway. "Who in the heck is shoutin' this early in the mornin'...?"

Lena turned to the hall in question. The man from yesterday, Bill, was coming out, scratching the back of his head. His hair was a messy, cowlicks sticking up around his head, and dark circles were under his eyes. He looked as though he'd just been sleeping.

"Oh... You're the kid with the Espurr, ain't ya?"

"You're the guy who had the sexy encounter with Espurr!"

"I told ya, there was no sexy encounter!"

"Still sounds sexy to me."

"IT WASN'T SEXY!"

"Who's out there?" a voice shouted from the right hall this time. Lena spun around. Coming down the hall were two boys who she recognized instantly.

"Oh, it's Trevor and the bitch," Lena said.

Calem glared at her. "You woke up Froakie with all of your useless shouting," he said in an annoyed tone of voice.

"I'm surprised that you're here this early, Lena," Trevor said. "No offense, but I thought you and Shauna would be here at the same time."

"Yeah, I actually thought the same thing," Lena said.

"I'm goin' back to bed," Bill muttered, turning and heading back down the hall he'd come from.

They waited out in that main room for a while. The receptionist arrived, turning on the lights and greeting them all before she left to go get some coffee. The entire time they spent there, Lena and Calem exchanged glares, while Trevor looked extremely uncomfortable, and Espurr took out books from the shelves and ate the corners from them.

Finally, Tierno arrived. Then Serena, and finally, as Lena had guessed, Shauna.

"Whoa," Serena had said upon arriving. "Lenny's here before the rest of us? What a shock."

"Let's get going, guys," Trevor said. "Professor Sycamore said he's going to show us his Garchomp today."

Lena's heart leapt into her throat. A Garchomp? That was a Sinnoh Pokémon... and Professor Sycamore had one? She'd never seen one in person. They weren't exactly common Pokémon. Usually, only really strong people had them. Like Cynthia, the Champion of Sinnoh. Lena had seen her on TV once... she was pretty cool.

As they headed for the outdoor room, Calem left them to go check on the frog Pokémon. Lena carried Espurr in her arms. She didn't know how many books it taken out and ate the corners of. And she didn't want to find out, either.

They entered the outdoor room. There were a few Pokémon out in the field, hiding in trees or in the bushes that lined the walls of the room.

"So I suppose we just wait for the professor now?" Serena said.

"Guess so," Tierno said.

"LENA!"

Lena groaned and turned around. Calem was entering the outdoor room behind them, a Poké Ball clutched in his hand. He was looking rather proud of himself for some bizarre reason.

"What's up, bitch?" Lena asked.

For once, Calem didn't get angry. "I challenge you," he said.

"Challenge me? To what?"

He sneered, lifting the Poké Ball up in front of him. "To a Pokémon battle!"

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: OH SHIT.<p>

God, Calem and Lena are both bitches. BITCHBITCHBITCH.

I should've waited to write this story for November. Then I could have done it for NaNoWriMo. The chapters are so long that it probably wouldn't take much to reach 50,000... Meh, I'm impatient and couldn't wait.


	4. Chapter 4: VS Froakie

Author's Notes: And I present to you... Lena's first Pokemon battle. Against Calem.

God, these two are both little bitches. I didn't mean for Calem to come out this way... it's just how my head-canon for him is. So I guess I did mean it? Huh.

I suck at writing battles. I hope that, by writing this story, I'll get better at it. Any tips, people?

Who am I kidding, no one's reading this crappy story. But this chapter does end the intro arc. Next up, the real plot begins. Finally.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: VS Froakie<p>

Silence filled the room. Then, everyone was talking at once.

"A-A-A battle?!" Trevor stammered. "Calem... She doesn't have any Pokémon aside from Espurr! Your Pokémon are way tougher than hers!"

"You forget, Trevs," Calem said. "That Froakie I saved? I've decided to take it in as my own. It's finished healing, so it's battle ready now."

"WHAT?!"

"Come on, Lena," Calem continued, his sneer spreading across his face. He gripped the Poké Ball in his hand even tighter, tilted his head to the side. "Or are you afraid?"

"I'm not afraid," Lena said. "_You_ should be the one who's afraid... Bitch."

Calem's sneer disappeared. "Fine. Let's make this a bit more interesting." He spread his arms out wide. "If I win, you stop hanging out with us. If _you_ win" – and he pointed right at Lena – "you can stay with our group. How's that sound?"

"FINE!" Lena shouted.

"What?! Calem, that's so not cool!" Shauna said with a stomp of her foot "You can't do that! Those rules are totally-"

"It's fine, Shauna," Lena said. She looked down at Espurr. "What do you think about battling, Espurr?"

Espurr stared at her for an abnormally long period of time before it wrenched itself free of her arms and dropped to the grass. "_Mraaowr."_

"Hope you've got some back-up friends," Calem said. "Because after this battle, you won't be hanging out with us anymore."

"Ohhh, boy, Calem's serious," Tierno said. "Let's get out of the way, guys. This battle's happening for realz."

They all moved out of the way. Lena backed up further from Calem, not daring to break her glare at him.

Calem threw the Poké Ball in the air. It burst open, and in a flash of light released the Pokémon inside. The blue and white frog Pokémon Lena had seen the day before appeared on the grass.

"We should be evenly matched," Calem said. "Now, let's start. Froakie, Lick!"

"Espurr, do something cool!" Lena said.

Trevor smacked his forehead. "Oh, boy..."

Froakie lunged at Espurr. The cat Pokémon leapt back, but Froakie's tongue shot out, quick as a flash, and whipped it across the face. Espurr dropped to one knee, wincing in apparent pain.

Lena grit her teeth. She didn't know anything about Espurr. Didn't know a single thing other than its name. No idea what type it was, what moves it had, or if it was even male or female.

"U-umm..."

"Quick Attack!" Calem shouted.

"Uh-"

Froakie slammed itself into Espurr, sending it tumbling back across the grass. Espurr made no noise as it pushed itself back up.

"Pound!"

"Uh-"

Espurr was struck by Froakie again.

"Lick!"

Espurr was slapped across the body with Froakie's tongue.

Lena was panicking. She didn't know what to do. "E-Espurr..."

"Water Pulse!" Calem ordered.

Froakie leapt back, opened its mouth, and let out a pulsating ring of water that flew towards Espurr. Lena closed her eyes. She couldn't bear to watch-

"_Mraaaaaowrr!"_

Lena opened her eyes. Espurr's folded over ears had lifted up, and the Water Pulse attack broke apart, dropping to the grass as plain old water. Espurr looked back at her, its ears closing. Still wearing that creepy look on its face.

"It's a psychic-type, Lena!" Trevor shouted.

"No helping her out, Trevor!" Calem snapped.

A psychic-type... So it had broken apart the pulse of water with its powers. That meant it had to at least know a basic psychic move...

She tried to think back to all those times her father had attempted to teach her about battling. Psychic Pokémon...

"Confusion!" Lena said.

Espurr's ears opened up again, and Froakie was blasted backwards. Its tongue lashed out and slapped Espurr right in the forehead. Espurr stumbled, then collapsed to the grass.

And didn't get back up.

"E-Espurr?!" Lena shouted. Espurr didn't respond.

Lena rushed forwards, scooping up the Pokémon in her arms. "Espurr? Espurr, are you okay? Answer me!"

Espurr said nothing.

"Hah, looks like we won," Calem said. "That was pathetic. You're going into your final year of high school battling like that? Pathetic."

"...Calem."

"Get out of here," Calem said. "I don't want to see your face near me and my friends ever again."

Lena set Espurr down, then charged across the short distance between them, ramming herself into Calem's chest. Caught off guard, Calem tripped, hitting the ground hard. Lena climbed on top of him, curling her hand into a fist before slamming it into Calem's face.

"Y-You bitch!" Calem shouted. He grabbed at Lena's hair, yanked her head back. She clawed at his face, raking her nails across the skin, hoping that it was enough to break it.

"You guys, stop!" Shauna screamed. Lena was sure they were running towards them, but she didn't care. She pulled Calem's hand free of her hair and sank her teeth down onto his hand. Calem let out a shout. Something knocked into Lena's head, sending an aching pain spreading through it. She bit down harder.

"Tierno, pull her off!"

"Righto!"

Two arms wrapped themselves around Lena, pulling her back. She didn't dare release Calem's hand from her mouth. Calem was punching her now, upside the head, screaming profanities at her in hopes that this would make her let go.

"What is going on in here?!"

Lena released Calem's hand and fell backwards as Tierno dragged her across the grass. She spat across the grass, rubbing her mouth and looking at the entrance. Professor Sycamore stood there, looking rather shocked with the scene in front of him.

"Um, well, Lena and Calem got into a fight, and, um..."

Professor Sycamore sighed. "Is everyone okay?"

"THE BITCH BIT ME! I'M BLEEDING, I'M DYING!"

Lena bit the inside of her mouth. "He hurt Espurr," Lena said. "Espurr is... it's..."

Someone tapped on her shoulder. Lena turned around. Serena was carrying Espurr in her arms, and Espurr had reached out to tap on her shoulder. Little cuts and marks covered its body, but it didn't look all that bad, now that Lena looked at it.

"You're okay?! But I thought... Calem killed you... You weren't moving!"

Lena took Espurr from Serena, hugging it tightly. "You're okay!"

"You stupid, psychotic bitch," Calem said. "You thought I killed your Pokémon? Don't you know anything about battles? You don't kill Pokémon in battles!"

"Come on, Calem, let's get your hand checked out," Professor Sycamore said. "Lena, come with me. Bring along Espurr. The rest of you, stay here."

"Yes, sir!" the other four said. Lena stood up, allowed Professor Sycamore to take her by the shoulder and lead her out of the room. Unfortunately, Calem was right next to her, with their teacher's other hand on his own shoulder. Calem held his bleeding hand to his chest, and wouldn't even look at Lena now.

They walked back into the room that Calem's Froakie had been in yesterday. A woman stood there, looking over some papers.

"Oh, my goodness, what happened, Calem?" she asked.

"The psycho next to me thought I killed her Pokémon and _attacked _me."

"Please fix up Calem's hand," Professor Sycamore said.

"Yes, sir. Calem, let's head across the hall. There's some bandages in there."

The two of them left, leaving Professor Sycamore, Lena, and Espurr behind.

"Now, Lena, was that really necessary, attacking your classmate like that?" Professor Sycamore said.

"I thought he killed Espurr!" Lena said. She was starting to feel a burning sensation behind her eyes. Oh, no. She was going to cry. She couldn't cry. Crying wasn't her thing. Biting people's hands until they bled was her thing.

Professor Sycamore was silent. Then, "Let's get Espurr healed up over here, shall we? It's already recovered from its unconscious state, so all we need to do is..."

Lena watched Professor Sycamore go through the shelves until he took out a blue and purple spray bottle. Lena set Espurr down on the table and watched as the professor sprayed the bottle's contents around Espurr's body. The cat Pokémon hissed quietly a few times, but other than that, did not protest the treatment.

"That was your first battle, wasn't it?" Professor Sycamore asked.

"N-... Yes."

"I see. You've never seen other battles before? You didn't know that Pokémon fainted in battles?"

Lena was about to say yes when a brief memory popped in her head. Her mother and father used to settle their arguments with Pokémon battles. She used to watch them battle from the window. She knew Pokémon fainted... she'd just forgotten.

"I knew they fainted," she said. "It's just... I guess I got scared. I thought Espurr was dead, and I didn't want it to be dead, and I was really angry at Calem because..."

Lena lowered her head. "I lost that battle," she said. "So I should leave now."

Professor Sycamore raised his eyebrows. "What? Leave? I was going to show everyone my totally adorable Garchomp."

"Yeah, but... I made a bet with Calem. If I lost the battle, I wouldn't be friends with these guys anymore. So I need to leave."

"Oh, I'm sure he wasn't serious about that, Lena. Come on, you can all take turns riding on Garchomp's back—"

"I'm going to leave," Lena said. She picked up Espurr from the table and left the room. Just as Calem was leaving the room across the hall. She glanced up at him, then away, and rushed back down the hallway.

She expected Calem to say something nasty to her back, but she heard nothing.

* * *

><p>Lena burst into the house, fully intending to not talk to her mother. But she didn't have to worry about that; her mother wasn't home. She rushed upstairs, hurried into her room. She had already returned Espurr to its Poké Ball on the way back, having been unable to take anymore of its staring and love bites.<p>

She'd let Espurr get hurt. She'd let Calem beat her. Why was she so stupid, so reckless? Her mother had always told her she needed to think before she leapt. But she had never listened to her mother, only listened to her father, who always leapt into battles without thinking.

And because of that, she'd lost a battle, and hurt her first Pokémon.

She heard a phone ringing. She sat up. The phone was definitely ringing. Rubbing at her eyes, Lena left her room, bounding down the stairs and picking up the phone before it stopped.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Is this Lena's house?" A voice in the background shouted, "YOU MORON!"

Lena paused. She'd recognize that slow, bored-sounding voice anywhere.

"LUUUUUCAAAASSS."

She slid down to the floor and began to cry.

"Oh, no, no, no... Guys, she's crying. What do I do? I can't deal with crying women. D-Dawn! You take the phone!"

"Oh, for the love of... Give me the phone, Lucas."

A girl's voice replaced the boy's. "Lena, what are you crying about?"

And Lena told her about the past two weeks there in Santalune. Her friend listened patiently, asking questions where they were needed ("Who's Calem again?" "HE'S A BITCH IS WHAT HE IS.")

"Wait, wait, wait!" The slow voice said in the background. Then, the voice was louder, "You got yourself a Pokémon?"

"Yeah, and I lost a battle, and now I don't have any friends, and I hurt Espurr, and-"

"Whoa, whoa. Espurr? What kind of Pokémon is that?"

"It's a Kalos Pokémon, dumbass!" a loud boy's voice in the background shouted.

"I don't want to be here," Lena said. "I want to be back home with you guys."

"Oh, come on. Don't sound like that," her friend said. "You can make some new friends, right?"

"No, because I scared away everyone else!"

"Typical Lena behavior," the loud voice said.

"Lucas, give the phone back to me," said the girl's voice. "Lena, stop crying. I know you're upset about losing – everyone gets upset when they lose their first battle – but it'll be better."

"Yeah," the slow voice said in agreement. "You can train and train and show Calem-"

"HIS NAME'S NOT CALEM, IT'S BITCH ASS HOE BAG."

"...Uh."

"Ignore her, Lucas," the girl's voice said. "Lena. It's like my mom always says... There's no need to worry. Oh, and everything's okay."

"BUT IT'S NOT."

"It is. You're just upset because of that boy and because you lost. Is Espurr okay?"

Lena sniffed, wiping her nose. "I-I don't know."

"Why don't you ask it?"

"It doesn't talk. All it does it make sounds and bites me. Like your mom's Glameow does all the time."

"It can't talk? Weird. Well, I'm sure it'll be fine. Talk to it. Make sure it's okay. You've only known each other for a day, right? Get to know your Espurr, get to-"

"GOD, DAWN, YOU'RE THE WORST ADVICE GIVER EVER. GIVE THE PHONE TO ME."

"No. Get away, Barry. I said-"

"LENA!" the loud voice screamed. Lena pulled the phone away from her ear. "YOU LISTEN UP, YOU SHORT MUNCHKIN-TYPE CREATURE, YOU. YOU'RE GONNA GET UP TOMORROW, GO TO SCHOOL, AND GO BACK TO THOSE KIDS AND KEEP ON HANGING OUT WITH THEM. SCREW THAT BITCH ASS HOE BAG. YOU'RE GONNA HANG OUT WITH THEM. YOU ARE GONNA HAVE SOME FRIENDS THAT AREN'T THE THREE OF US."

Lena sniffed. "But I lost a bet. A bet's a bet. I can't-"

"Lena." Her friend's voice was deadly quiet, unlike his usual loud volume. "You. Are. Going. To. Hang. Out. With. Them. BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T, ARCEUS HELP ME, I WILL FIND YOU AND PUNCH YOU INTO NEXT WEEK LIKE I DID WITH LUCAS WHEN WE WERE THIRTEEN. DO YOU REMEMBER THAT? YOU DIDN'T SEE LUCAS FOR A WEEK BECAUSE I PUNCHED HIM SO HARD THAT I SENT HIM INTO THE FUTURE."

"Actually," the slow voice said, "I just got a cold?"

"SHUT UP, LUCAS. LENA, YOU LISTEN TO ME. YOU HANG OUT WITH THOSE PEOPLE TOMORROW, GOT IT? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

Lena saluted, even though she knew her friend wouldn't see it. "Sir, yes, sir!"

"GOOD. NOW STOP CRYING AND GO TALK TO ESPURR."

"YES, SIR!"

* * *

><p>"Okay, Espurr. Today, we're heading to school," Lena said early the next morning. Espurr stared at her blankly, then slowly nodded. "You know what school is? It's, uh, the... worst thing ever, actually, so you don't need to worry about it."<p>

"_Mraowr._"

Someone knocked on the door. The door opened, and her mother peeked in. "Wow." She looked somewhat surprised, or as surprised as a woman of her cruelty and pure evil could manage. "You're awake before I came to wake you up? I'm surprised."

Lena stood up, placed her hands on her hips, and smirked. "Of course. Espurr and I are going to be the best team EVA. Aren't we, Espurr?"

Espurr nodded.

Her mother smiled. "Well, why don't you get ready and I'll make some breakfast. How's that sound?"

"ALL RIGHT!"

As Lena sat down at the kitchen table, eating pancakes and other various items of food, she looked around their house. It wasn't so bad, now that she looked at it. She could get used to it. It wasn't her home in Sinnoh, but...

"You seem awfully cheerful," her mother said. "Did aliens abduct you last night or something? What's the deal with you?"

"Nothing," Lena said. "I'm just going to show Calem that I'll be friends with his friends even if he doesn't want me to. Also, I finally get to partcipate in the practical battling classes. I could learn a few things."

"...Do you have a fever?"

"No."

"Are you dying?"

"Nope."

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" Lena said. "I meant what I said, really!"

"Maybe you should stay home."

"MOM. I'M FINE."

Espurr started chewing on the leg of the table. Neither of them paid attention to it.

* * *

><p>Lena trotted through the streets of Santalune. She'd never paid much attention to it, but the roads leading to the school were paved, and there were many trees and other plant life all around them. There seemed to be an abundance of bug-like Pokémon roaming in the trees as well.<p>

She had been so angry about moving here that she'd never paid attention to her surroundings. Kalos was no Sinnoh, but it looked just as nice.

"Oh! Shauna!" Lena shouted.

Up ahead was the slightly obnoxious girl, walking alongside a white and pink Pokémon with bows around its body. The two of them turned around, and Shauna's face brightened.

"Oh, Lenny!"

They ran towards each other. "I thought for sure that, after yesterday, you weren't going to talk to me," Shauna said, a bit sheepishly. "Calem was sure of it, too."

"Yeah, well, screw Calem. What kind of Pokémon is that?" Lena said.

"This is Sylveon!" Shauna said. "Say hi, Sylveon!"

The Pokémon bowed its head. "Good morning, Miss Lena."

"Eheh... She's a bit polite," Shauna added.

This only brought another slight problem to light. Everyone knew that most Pokémon could talk... It seemed as though her Espurr was one of the few that couldn't. Perhaps she'd have to teach it how to speak.

The two of them started to walk side by side. Lena listened as Shauna told her all about Professor Sycamore's Garchomp, and how she'd gotten to ride on its back, and how fast and cool the Pokémon was. Lena felt a tad disappointed that she'd missed it, but she was sure that she'd get another chance to help out soon.

They reached the school, heading inside. The halls were crowded with people as they made their way towards their classroom.

"By the way, is Espurr okay after yesterday's battle?" Shauna asked as they neared their classroom.

"Yeah, it's fine. Professor Sycamore healed it all up." Lena frowned. "But... I think I need to practice battling a bit more. Calem was right. It was pathetic that I lost so quickly."

"Oh, don't think like that. Everyone loses once in a while. I lost my first battle against Serena. Her Fennekin against my Chespin. I still remember how bravely Lil' Chespin fought... Ah, it's so adorable! I'll have you meet my other two Pokémon later!"

They reached their classroom, opening the door and walking inside.

"Shauna, you're late!" Calem said, grinning from ear to ear. Then he saw Lena, and the smile disappeared. "What're _you_ doing with Shauna?"

Lena stopped herself from saying something nasty. "I decided, Calem," she said. "I may have lost that battle, but I'm still going to hang out with you guys."

"That wasn't the bet!"

"Oh, Calem," Serena said, giving her friend a shove. "Just let her hang out with us. Hey, that gives me an idea! You two can be rivals!"

"What? Be her rival? I'm already _your_ rival, aren't I, Serena?"

"I guess... Though it's not much of a rivalry" – and Serena smiled – "if you lose every battle against me."

Calem's face turned red, either from embarrassment or anger. It was hard to tell, at least to Lena, because she basically just wanted to punch him with every facial expression he made.

"So, Calem," Lena said. "From this day forward, you and I are eternal rivals!"

"What?!"

"I won't lose our next battle!"

"WHAT?!"

And from his desk there in the classroom, Professor Sycamore grinned. In what was apparently a slightly creepy manner, as his class quickly began shouting for him to stop grinning like that.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: I'd be creeped out too if Professor Sycamore just started grinning at a class of kids. HAHAHA-<p>

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS

Battles! Okay, _a_ battle! Sort of! World-building... SORT OF! A point of view that doesn't focus on Lena! AWRIGHT! And finally, a mysterious Pokemon appears!

Tune in next time for a not-so-exciting chapter of Sky Shards!


	5. Chapter 5: VS Masquerain

Author's Notes: I hope the professor's usage of French was correct. It'll be embarrassing if it's incorrect.

Anyway, this does some sort-of world-building. I'm very bad at it, but I hope I was able to convey some of my ideas for the setting to you guys.

Thanks to KazeWindfold, who reviewed my story! It means a lot to me.

Sorry if Viola was a bit out of character. I was trying to base her personality on what I remembered from Pokemon X. But I'm sure it's not very accurate. I'll try to improve it with the future chapters.

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: VS Masquerain<p>

"In the past, disasters ravaged the regions of our world," Professor Sycamore said, reading from a book in his hand. "The oceans swallowed up the regions, leaving people to rush to higher land. So, in order to deal with this problem... Well, how did we deal with it? Anyone?"

Trevor raised his hand. "The people created airship cities, sir," he said.

"And can you name the airship cities of Kalos, Trevor?"

"Ahem... Our city, Santalune, along with Vaniville, Aquacorde, Camphrier, Ambrette, Cyllage, Geosenge, Shalour, Coumarine, Laverre, Dendemille, Anistar, Couriway, Snowbelle, and" – and Trevor took in a deep breath – "Kiloude."

Lena couldn't believe Trevor knew every single city associated with Kalos. She could barely remember the cities of Sinnoh, and she'd lived there for sixteen years. It was, she had to admit, impressive.

"_Tres bien!_" Professor Sycamore said with a clap of his hands. "I knew I could count on you, Trevor."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now, eight of those cities are lead by Gym Leaders. Gym Leaders are...? Let's see, how about you, Calem?"

Calem, looking excited that he'd been chosen, said, "Gym Leaders are people who had been appointed by the Kalos Pokémon League Association to lead their cities and maintain order across the region."

"_Tres bien!_ Now, our very own Santalune City is home to a Gym Leader as well. And I have a special guest for us today..." Professor Sycamore turned to the classroom door. "You may enter!"

The door opened, and in walked a young woman, with short blonde hair and pale skin. Two tendrils of hair framed her face. She wore a white shirt and blue pants. Green eyes peered out across the classroom.

Trevor let out a squeak. "I-I-It's Viola!?" he squeaked. "T-T-The Gym Leader of Santalune City!"

The class instantly burst into conversation. Everyone was standing up from their seats, trying to get a better look at the woman. Even Lena was craning her head to get a look, but she was so short that, what with all her classmates now standing, she couldn't see over them.

"Hello, everyone, nice to meet you," said the young woman. "I'm Viola, as you may already know. Gym Leader of this city."

Lena bounced up, trying to peer over everyone's heads. Finally, fed up with her failed attempts of seeing the Gym Leader, she stood up on her desk and towered above everyone else. Needless to say, she got stares.

"Well, aren't you all a bunch of energetic kids?" Viola said with a smile.

"Why are you here in our class, Miss Viola?" one of the girls asked.

"I'll be helping out with today's practical battling class," Viola said. "I just wanted to see the faces of all of the school's students, so I've been visiting all the classrooms to get a look."

The day just got more exciting, in Lena's opinion. Practical battling classes were already sort of interesting, but now they were going to have a Gym Leader help them out?

"I train bug-type Pokémon," Viola continued. "It's my specialty. I also take photos of them. If you visit my gym, you'll be able to see some of my favorite photos... Oh, but enough about me. I'll let you get on with your class, professor."

"Ah, but don't forget the special announcement," Professor Sycamore said.

"Oh, right."

Viola turned back to them all as she was about to leave the classroom. "This Friday, you'll all be taking a field trip to Lumiose City!"

"WHAT?!" the class shouted.

"Yes, it's the third-year field trip!" Professor Sycamore said, spreading his arms wide. "We'll be stopping in Lumiose City for our field trip! Three days, two nights in the wonderful Lumiose!

"As you may know, Lumiose City is the only city to remain on the ground of Kalos, along with the Pokémon League itself. A popular tourist site, many cities from around the world come to Lumiose to refuel and take a little break.

"My old research lab is located there. I've left my two assistants, Sina and Dexio, in charge of it while I'm gone. I just hope Sina didn't burn it down..."

Lena was excited. She'd only heard of Lumiose City on TV before... It was one of the biggest cities in the world, and a popular filming location for her favorite show Spirit Adventures. Now she could brag to her friends back home about how she got to visit Lumiose.

This day was just getting better and better.

* * *

><p>It was finally time for practical battling class. It was meant to, as the name suggested, teach the basics of battling to the students. Lena hadn't been able to participate for her first two weeks, so she hadn't paid much attention to what they were being taught. Her teacher for that class had been kind enough to give her special lessons after school to help her catch up.<p>

Now it was the beginning of May, and the school year really was almost over. Come the first week of June, and they would take finals, and then they'd be done.

"Hey, there, everyone!" Viola greeted them as they all hurried across the school lawn to where she was waiting for their teacher for the practical battling class. Standing behind them were a couple of people, around Lena's own age, quietly talking to one another.

"Now, let's begin... Practical battling class!"

Viola taught them things they hadn't really been taught before. It was less about Pokémon types and move types and more about the hidden effects of moves and so on an so forth. One of the boys went up against Viola's Vivillon (a butterfly Pokémon with rather pretty reddish purple wings). His Pokémon was the subject of Vivillon's Infestation attack, in which it was infested with tiny things that caused harm to it and prevented it from being returned to its Poké Ball.

Lena would never admit it aloud, but watching that scene scared the crap out of her. Finally, the infestation had gone away, and Viola healed his Pokémon.

She later demonstrated an attack known as Powder against Serena's Delphox (a tall yellow and red fox Pokémon with a large, bushy tail). It sprayed a fine powder over Delphox, and when the Pokémon attempted to use a fire-type move, the powder exploded.

That also scared the crap out of Lena.

Bug-types were fearsome creatures indeed.

Finally, they were paired off against the people who had been waiting there in the lawn alongside their teacher and Viola. Each of them had bug-type Pokémon with them, and they each had one Pokémon face off against one of the student's Pokémon.

Lena waited her turn, gazing into Espurr's Poké Ball. Viola had mentioned earlier that psychic-types were weak to bug-types. She didn't want Espurr to be infested... She didn't have to worry much about the Powder move, since she was absolutely sure Espurr knew no fire moves, but...

"EEK! LIL CHESNAUGHT!"

…She didn't want to do this.

So she claimed she had to use the restroom and ran like hell back to the school building. She hid in the bathroom, waiting for the bell to ring. The bathroom was fairly dark, with dim lights that flickered occasionally. The rest of the school was so bright, but the bathroom looked like something from a horror movie.

Unfortunately, the teacher sent someone to go looking for Lena after a while. The teacher was probably afraid that Lena had fallen into the toilet and couldn't get back up or something along those lines.

"Lena, are you in here?" a voice asked. Lena pulled her legs up from where she sat on a toilet in one of the stalls.

"I just saw you move your feet," the voice said.

Lena sighed and exited the stall. Viola was standing there in the entrance to the darkened bathroom.

"It's your turn to battle," Viola said. "You're the only one who hasn't done it yet."

"I don't want to, though," Lena said.

"What? Why not?"

"B-Because," Lena mumbled. "I don't want Espurr to get hurt..."

"...Ah, I see," Viola said. She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "That is a problem... Espurr's a psychic-type, so it'll receive more damage than usual if any of our Pokémon were to attack it with a bug-type move... Hmm..."

Lena felt her stomach tighten up at the thought of letting Espurr get hit with that Infestation attack. She wasn't even sure if Espurr would care... but she would.

"Is Espurr your only Pokémon?" Viola asked.

"Yes. I just met it recently... I haven't had it for long."

"It's your first Pokémon? But you're almost in your final year of school."

"I-I know," Lena mumbled. "It was just hard... I mean, I wanted a Pokémon that was special... And that would be Espurr. I already lost a battle with it once, and I don't want it to get hurt again. I've been training a lot so it gets stronger, but I'm sure it's still weak... at least when I compare it to everyone else's Pokémon.

"Everyone else has all these fully evolved Pokémon. Like Serena and Shauna and Tierno and Trevor. So I feel..." And, voicing a thought that had been on her mind for a while, said, "So I feel kind of left out. And they're always trying to help me out with these battling classes when we're paired up by having their Pokémon fake fainting, which does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and..."

"But I recall seeing a boy out there with a Froakie?" Viola said. "Maybe you and him should talk about-"

"NO WAY," Lena said. "He's my eternal rival and I hate him, so I'm not going to relate with Calem about having a low-leveled Pokémon."

Viola let out a laugh. "You're a bit of an odd one, aren't you? Come on, let's go back outside. I've got something that can help your Pokémon."

* * *

><p>Lena nervously stood on the field, surrounded by her classmates. She pulled on the end of her uniform shirt, bunching up the corner tightly. She had sent Espurr out, and Viola had given it a green berry to it to hold. And now, Viola had sent out another bug-type Pokémon; something with orange eyeballs that stared down at them as it flitted about through the air.<p>

"This is my Masquerain," Viola said. "It just evolved a couple of days ago... so it's pretty weak, just like your Espurr is.

"Now, I'm going to use the move Struggle Bug. Tell Espurr to eat the berry just before the attack, all right?"

"Yes," Lena said. "You hear that, Espurr? Eat the berry before Masquerain hits you."

Espurr looked down at the berry, sniffed it, then nodded.

"All right, everyone. This is a demonstration of some of the powers that certain berries have," Viola said. "Masquerain, use Struggle Bug!"

Masquerain zipped forwards. Espurr quickly began eating the berry, and had just finished it as Masquerain struck it with its attack. Espurr winced, but it wasn't quite the reaction that Lena been expecting. For a move that was supposed to be supereffective, it almost didn't seem to do as much damage...

"That's the power of the Tanga berry," Viola said. "It lessens the damage from what was supposed to be a supereffective bug-type attack."

"Oooh!"

"There are many berries with this same effect. If you go into Santalune Forest at the end of the city, you might be able to find some berries yourselves."

Lena stared. "...There's a forest on this ship?"

"You didn't know?"

"What, of course I knew, I totally knew, because I'm smart and awesome, yo."

When she looked back at her classmates, she saw all of them giving her that look that her mother gave her sometimes when she lied in a painfully obvious manner. The "sure you actually knew" look.

"YOU GUYS GOT A PROBLEM WITH ME OR SOMETHING?!"

They all looked away. Well, almost all of them did. Shauna was incapable of sensing when someone was angry, so she ran up to Lena and grabbed her hands. Lena attempted to pull them away, but Shauna had a vicegrip on her. Arceus, what was this girl's deal with hand holding?

"Ohmaigawsh, you haven't been to Santalune Forest yet?" Shauna said. "Let's go right after school!"

"Uh, sure, but I need to stop by my house first."

"Okay, then I'll just go on ahead and prepare things!"

…Prepare what things, Lena wanted to ask, but she kept her mouth shut. Who knew what in the world was going through Shauna's head. No one did, and that was the scariest part.

"And that ends our practical battling class! Let's thank Viola for helping us-"

"THANK YOU, VIOLA," the class all said before their teacher finished their sentence.

Viola laughed, waving her hand around. "It's not a problem. I'm always willing to help out the students of our city... Hey, come visit me at my gym sometime, all right?"

* * *

><p>"These are the directions to the forest," Trevor said, handing Lena a piece of paper with a map drawn on it. "From the school, you just follow this path, all right?"<p>

"Righto, Trevs."

Trevor turned to where Shauna, Serena, Tierno, and Calem waited nearby. "Guys, I need to stop by my place as well. You don't have to wait for me, I'll catch up."

"All right, Trevs!"

Shauna watched as Lena and Trevor started in opposite directions to reach their homes. In spite of herself, she let out a squeal. She'd been to Santalune Forest quite a few times, when she was younger, mainly to train her then-Chespin. But she hadn't been there in a while. Perhaps there were new Pokémon there for her to catch...

The four of them started through the city. Santalune Forest was located at the end of the city, a wide expanse of trees packed so tightly together that, when one was inside the forest, there was very little sunlight available.

Shauna hummed a little tune as they walked along. She swung her arms back and forth.

"Will you stop humming so badly?" Calem complained.

"Eh? My humming sounds totally fine!"

"No. It sounds like your Chesnaught has a cold and is dying at the same time."

Shauna bunched her hands into fists and glared at Calem. "That's so not true!" Then, because she couldn't think of a better comeback, said, "_You're_ the one that sounds like that!"

"Right. I'm the one who sounds like a dying Chesnaught. Riiiiight."

"Ugh! You know, Calem, you are such a..."

"Such a what?"

"STUPID STUPID HEAD!" Shauna shouted. She took off running at full speed, unable to stand the sight of Calem's stupid stupid head any longer.

"Did you have to do that?" Tierno asked, looking at Calem. Calem ignored him.

* * *

><p>Three Pokémon flew through the sky. "Come on, we have to hurry..."<p>

"Quickly, they're catching up!"

They looked behind themselves. It was difficult to see what exactly was following them, but they knew they were being followed by something. Then, one of the Pokémon saw it; a faint, shimmering form zooming towards them.

"No-"

The thing slammed through the small group, knocking them out of the air. They plummeted down towards the trees below.

* * *

><p>"Stupid Calem...," Shauna grumbled as she reached Santalune Forest and entered the calming darkness of the trees. Immediately upon entering the forest, she could feel her anger draining away. It was so calm here, so peaceful... It was hard to stay angry when you were in a place like this.<p>

She was about to send out her three Pokémon when she heard a tiny voice at that exact moment. "Please... help..."

She froze. What was that voice?

"Hello?" Shauna called. She walked further down the path, looking from side to side. Where had the voice come from?

The bushes rustled, and Shauna, in spite of herself, let out a scream.

A Pokémon dropped out of the bushes, collapsing to the ground. Shauna blinked a few times, unsure of what she was seeing.

The Pokémon was all sorts of colors. Its face was gray, its body looked at though it were wearing a white dress, and beautiful pink gems sat like a crown atop its head. A large rock-like appendage poked out from beneath the white dress, pink gems dotted around it.

"Huh... I've never seen a Pokémon like you before!"

Shauna could feel the excitement building. She rushed towards the Pokémon, bending down beside it – and immediately noticed the large gash across its chest.

"Oh, my gosh, you're hurt! Oh, I don't have my bag with me... Um, hang on!"

Shauna reached out to touch the Pokémon. The Pokémon flinched as she reached towards it, and Shauna pulled her hand back.

What should she do? The Pokémon was clearly hurt... And had it been the one that asked for help? If so, why was it reacting like it was afraid?

No... She had to help this Pokémon, no matter what. Shauna, as gently as she could, picked the Pokémon up. She'd been expecting it to be fairly heavy, what with the rock attached to its body and all of the gems, but it was lighter than she expected.

"I'll bring you to Professor Sycamore's lab!" Shauna said. She pushed herself up from the ground. "Here we go!"

Shauna started running. She didn't get far before she noticed the presence of three people, entering the forest. She'd recognize those people anywhere.

"Serena, Tierno, Calem!" Shauna shouted. "I need you help, there's an injured Pokémon!"

"Where?" Serena asked.

"What's that in her arms?" Tierno asked.

The three rushed up to her. Shauna came to a stop and looked down at the injured Pokémon. Its eyes were shut, but she could see the eyelids fluttering, its eyes moving behind them.

"This is terrible!" Calem said. "I don't have any potions on me, though."

"Neither do I," Serena and Tierno said in unison.

"I was going to bring it to the professor's lab," Shauna said. "I don't know what kind of Pokémon it is, but I'd feel better if we brought it there instead of the Pokémon Center."

"Yeah. Besides, the Pokémon Center here isn't as reliable. They're short-staffed and all, and I don't think they'd know what to do with a Pokémon like this," Calem said. "Let's get going."

"What kind of Pokémon is this anyway?" Serena asked.

"I don't know," Shauna said. "But let's hurry!"

The four of them rushed out of the forest and hurried for Professor Sycamore's lab.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: And the plot finally gets moving.<p>

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS!

What is the identity of the mysterious Pokemon Shauna found? Trevor and Lena head through the forest and encounter a mysterious Pokemon themselves! But a grave announcement changes the course of their lives...

(It's kind of fun doing the NEXT TIME ON... things. You guys should try it sometime.)


	6. Chapter 6: VS Carbink & Victini

Author's Notes: This chapter comes a bit later than my usual schedule for updates, because I had to rewrite the whole thing, and then I wait an hour or so before I proofread it, because I catch mistakes easier after I rest from using the computer for a while.

Also. I was very distracted by the Pokemaniacs forum. Not that that's a bad thing or anything. By the way, if you haven't joined yet, I highly suggest that you do. It's a lot of fun. (Go on, check out the link on my profile page. Come on.)

Anyway, this chapter's a bit... meh. I'll add some notes at the end of it, if you're interested.

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: VS Carbink &amp; Victini<p>

"Professor Sycamore, we have a big problem!" Calem shouted as he slammed open the doors to the lab.

Thankfully, the professor was there in that lobby, speaking with the receptionist and that guy from a few weeks ago, the one named Bill. The three of them turned in the direction of the kids as they rushed inside the building.

"Professor," said Shauna, breathing heavily, "I found this Pokémon in the forest. It's injured, and we didn't have any medicine, so we hurried to bring it here."

Professor Sycamore's smile had vanished from his face. He rushed over to them, taking a look at the Pokémon in Shauna's arms. "I've never seen a Pokémon like this before," he said. "Odd... But let's hurry to the examination room. That gash looks bad."

"Yes, sir!" the four of them answered, rushing after the professor as he hurried down the east hallway.

Shauna felt the Pokémon in her arms stir. "It's moving!" she exclaimed. "Don't you worry, Mystery Pokémon! You'll be better in no time!"

"No... M-My friends, they..."

"Your friends?" Calem asked.

"Are there more Pokémon like you that are hurt?" Tierno asked.

The Pokémon made an attempt to open its eyes. It quickly shut them again. "You have... to help them... Please..."

Professor Sycamore held open the door to the examination room. "Quickly, inside," he ordered. "I heard it talking. What did it say?"

"I think it has some friends in the forest who are hurt," said Serena. "I'll go look for them!"

"So will I," said Tierno.

"We'll stay here with this Pokémon, then," Calem said. "Hurry, Shauna, bring it over here."

Shauna nodded. She rushed to into the room and set the Pokémon down on the table. She stepped back, allowing the professor and the woman in the lab coat who had been in the room beforehand to approach the Pokémon. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she clasped her hands in front of her chest.

She hoped that the Pokémon was going to be okay.

* * *

><p>Lena had followed Trevor's map and arrived at a vast forest that was right there on the airship. She had changed out of her school uniform back at home, putting on a pair of shorts and a plain shirt instead. This was much better for forest exploration that her school uniform, which included a skirt.<p>

The trees were very tall. Lena walked through the entrance of the forest, and found that the trees' leaves were so close together that it blocked out almost all of the sunlight. Streams of light filtered in through the spaces between the leaves, making spots on the forest floor.

"Oh, Lena, you're here."

Lena blinked in surprise, turning away from the trees to find Trevor walking towards her. He was dressed out of his school uniform, though his casual outfit wasn't all that much different from the uniform. A backpack sat on his back.

"Where're Shauna and the others?" she asked.

"I don't know. I can't find them," he said. "I don't know if they're hiding and waiting to scare us, or if they just haven't arrived yet."

"Let's look for them, then," Lena said. "And no screaming if they scare us."

Trevor's cheeks turned pink. "I-I wouldn't scream..."

"Sure you wouldn't."

The two of them started through the forest. Trevor wasn't a big talker, and Lena didn't speak at all, either. Come to think of it, Trevor was pretty quiet in general. He only made comments to mention his friends' stupidity, or to display his vast knowledge on everything out there.

"Um, so," Lena said, because the silence was killing her. "You're pretty smart."

"Not really," Trevor said. "I only know what I know."

"No, really. I was impressed that you knew all the cities in Kalos. I don't even know all the cities in Sinnoh, and I lived there for sixteen years. All I know is Jubilife City, because that's where I lived, and Twinleaf Town. Everything else? I have no idea."

"You should try and learn some things, then. Read a book or something." Trevor quickly lowered his head. "I'm not saying that you don't read or that you're stupid, it's just that-"

"Trevor."

"Yes?"

"I'm a dumb shit, I know that. Go on, call me a dumb shit."

"W-What?"

"Go on. My mom calls me that on a near daily basis. Call me a dumb shit, go on now."

"Uh... You... You aren't the smartest person out there," Trevor said.

And that was the closest Lena was ever going to get to Trevor calling her a dumb shit. Oh, well.

Lena let out a sigh. She closed her eyes, listening as the wind rustled through the trees. It was so peaceful here in the forest... She should come here and take a nap sometime...

"Lena, watch out!"

Lena's eyes flew open, just as something slammed into her stomach. Hard. Gasping, she grasped at her stomach and stumbled backwards. She had to blink the tears from her eyes, and struggled to focus on what was in front of her.

It was a Pokémon. It was a dark gray color, with pointed, ear-like appendages sticking out from the top of its head. Blue stones were embedded at random locations across its body, and something puffy and white surrounded the top of its rock-like body. Blue eyes stared at them.

"What the hell was that for?" Lena yelled. The Pokémon flinched away from her, its eyes quivering and tears beginning to form.

Trevor looked amazed rather than frightened that a Pokémon had just flew out of nowhere and headbutted Lena. Then again, he hadn't been the one on the receiving end of that attack. "That's a Carbink, a rock/fairy-type Pokémon," he said. "You don't see them in Santalune at all. That's super unusual."

"You're unusual," Lena muttered.

"What?"

"What what?"

The Pokémon squeaked, nudging itself against Lena. Lena shoved the Pokémon, Carbink, away. "What do you want?"

The Pokémon pointed with its ear things. Seriously, what were those things? Before Lena could examine the things on its head any further, it floated away. It stopped a short way away, then looked back at them, releasing a tiny cry.

"I think it wants us to follow it," said Trevor.

"So great that you can speak Carbink, Trevor."

Trevor ignored her. He hurried after the Pokémon, and after a moment's hesitation, Lena followed after him. The two of them reached Carbink, and then it flew off again, to another location.

They played this game for a few minutes, until Carbink flew off into the trees. When it saw that the two of them were no longer following it, it let out another cry.

Why couldn't this thing just talk to her? Was it like Espurr, one of those few Pokémon that couldn't speak? In which case, this sucked.

Lena climbed into the bushes that surrounded the trees, feeling the twigs from the bushes scratch at her bare legs. Carbink, upon seeing her following, flew deeper into the forest. Trevor remained where he was.

"Uh, I'll just stay here, in case... you know... something happens," Trevor said.

Lena kept following Carbink, until it slammed itself into her stomach again. "MOTHERFU-"

And then she saw why Carbink had stopped her. There was a Pokémon lying on the ground, right in the path that Lena had been walking on. It was orange and yellow in color, with little yellow wing-like things connected to its body. It was tiny, probably the same size as Carbink.

"Trevor, there's a Pokémon here that's hurt!"

"Bring it out here, then!"

Lena bent down to pick up the Pokémon. And while Carbink did not attack her for her actions, the Pokémon she was picking up did.

Its eyes shot open, and it began clawing at her arms and face with its tiny claws.

"SWEET BABY PICHUS, IT'S ATTACKING ME!"

"What?!"

Carbink jumped in between Lena and the Pokémon. It made some noises, and the Pokémon stopped attacking her. The mystery Pokémon fixed Lena with a glare, its blue eyes mistrusting and angry.

"W-what do you want?" it asked with a voice like that of a young boy's.

After the initial shock of a Pokémon actually talking to her for once, Lena said, "You're hurt, so I was going to help you. Carbink led me here."

The Pokémon watched her for a moment. Then it nodded. "Okay..."

Lena picked up the Pokémon, being careful not to hurt it any further. Its body was covered with small cuts, and there was a burn-like mark on the front of its body. She started back through the trees, and came out to Trevor, who let out a sigh of relief, and then promptly screamed.

"Arceus, Trevor! What are you now, Shauna, screaming like that?!"

"L-Lena, th-that Pokémon...," Trevor said and gulped. He lifted a shaking finger to point at she and the Pokémon. "That's a _legendary_ Pokémon! From Unova! It's called Victini!"

"...Wait, what? Seriously?!"

"Seriously! What's it doing in Santalune City?"

"It doesn't matter. Do you have anything to help it out with?"

"Actually, yeah," said Trevor. He unzipped his backpack, rummaging around until he pulled out an orange spray bottle. "Set it down for me, will you?"

Lena bent down, setting down Victini on the ground. Trevor knelt down beside them. "This might sting a little," he warned the Pokémon. Victini nodded, and he began to apply the spray bottle's contents to its body. The cuts on its body began to foam up as the injuries were seemingly disinfected.

"Okay... Turn around... like that, yeah... Okay, we're done."

The Pokémon, Victini, spun around to face Trevor. It watched him warily, as though it still wasn't sure if he was someone it could trust. "Thank you," it said, then looked away.

"Don't thank us, thank Carbink," Trevor said with a smile. "It was the one that led us to you."

Victini suddenly gasped. It jumped up from the ground, floating in the air. "Carbink!" it shouted. "Where is she... Where's Diancie?!"

Carbink made a few noises that mostly resembled squeaks. Victini grit its teeth. "Darn it all... They took Diancie!"

"What? Who took Diancie?!" Trevor asked.

"What's Diancie?" Lena asked.

"Diancie is a legendary Pokémon like Victini," Trevor said. "But two legendary Pokémon, together in Santalune... I can't believe it!"

"Can you please help me?" Victini asked. "I need to find Diancie! We're in danger!"

"In danger of what?"

"Of... Of being hunted," Victini hesitantly said. "We're in trouble, to tell you the truth. We were on the run, but then we were attacked, and luckily these trees here broke our fall. I thought for sure we were going to die..."

Trevor nodded and stood up. "We'll help you," he said. "Let's hurry. If Diancie's hurt like you were, then-"

"LENNY, TREVS!"

Trevor and Lena turned in the direction of the voices. Rushing towards them were Serena and Tierno.

"Guys, we have a problem!" Trevor said.

Carbink made a shrill noise and rocketed towards Tierno and Serena. It slammed into Serena first, then attempted to stab Tierno with its ears.

"Whoa, what's with the Carbink?!"

Curled into a ball on the ground was Serena. "I think I have external bleeding..."

"I think you mean internal bleed- WHOA!" Tierno swiftly moved out of the way, almost seeming to be dancing as he avoided Carbink's attacks. The little Pokémon only looked more enraged.

"Those are the people!" Victini shouted. "They took Diancie!"

"...Eh?!"

"Diancie?" Tierno asked. "Who's-"

Carbink stabbed him with its ears. He let out a shout, dancing out of the way as Carbink moved in for a second attack. He held his side in pain.

Lena didn't know what to make of this situation. Serena and Tierno took Diancie? What in the world was going on here?

"You fiends!" Victini shouted. "Take this... V-create!"

Flames burst forth from Victini's forehead. The Pokémon rushed at them, flying at Serena and Tierno.

And Trevor moved. He launched himself at Victini and threw his body over the Pokémon. Flames burst forth from Trevor's body, and Victini began to scream.

"Let me go, let me go! They took Diancie, they took her!"

"S-stop!" Trevor said. "They're not bad people! I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding!"

The flames quickly vanished. Trevor dropped to his knees and released Victini. The little Pokémon flew back up into the air, glaring at him.

"Why did you stop me?! These people were supposed to receive that attack, not you!"

Serena had recovered from Carbink's nearly-deadly tackle and rushed to Trevor's side. "Trevor, are you okay?!"

"I'm... fine," Trevor said. "Just a few burns... Ow."

Carbink was still trying to stab Tierno.

"Uh, Victini, what're you talking about?" Lena asked. "What do you mean that Serena and Tierno took Diancie?"

"Carbink saw them while it was looking for her," Victini said. "It said that they, along with two other humans, took Diancie out of the forest!"

"Diancie... Wait, is that the Pokémon Shauna rescued?" Serena asked.

"Rescued? You kidnapped her, fiends! How dare you... How _dare _you!"

"Wait, this is just a misunderstanding!" Tierno spun out of Carbink's reach again. He finally stopped dancing long enough to say, "It was injured and Shauna found it, so we brought to the professor's lab- OW."

Carbink stabbed Tierno again.

"So... wait. You mean that Diancie's safe?" Victini looked dumbfounded. It apparently suffered from some severe mood swings. "...Take me to this 'professor's lab'," it said. "I want to see Diancie!"

"That's great and all, but" – Tierno spun around – "can you make this Pokémon quit it already?!"

* * *

><p>At Trevor's orders, they hid Victini in his backpack. He said they would attract too much attention if they ran through the streets with a Victini with them. No one else had any better ideas on where to hide it, so into Trevor's backpack it went.<p>

Carbink floated after them, glaring at Tierno the entire time.

They reached the professor's lab in record time. No one was out in the lobby.

Trevor unzipped his backpack, and Victini popped out, floating above them. "Where's Diancie? I don't see her!"

"She's down this hall," said Tierno, gesturing at the east hallway. Victini flew down it, looking around frantically for its friend. The four of them rushed after it.

"Where? Where?!"

"In this room!" Tierno held open the door to the examination room. Victini zipped inside.

"DIANCIE!"

Carbink shoved Tierno out of the way to get inside the room with Victini and Diancie. Lena hurried to join them with Trevor, Shauna, and Tierno.

In that room were the professor, a woman in a lab coat, Calem, Shauna, the receptionist who was not doing her job, and Bill, the guy who had the sexy encounter with Lena's Espurr.

Bill turned to Lena. "Did you just think of me as the guy who-"

"No," Lena lied.

"Diancie, I'm so glad you're okay!" Victini hugged the Pokémon that sat on the long table there. It was an odd Pokémon; it had very pretty pink jewels atop its head, and it almost looked as though it was wearing a white dress that didn't quite cover the rock the jutted out beneath its body. That rock was encrusted with more pink stones.

"It kind of looks like Carbink," Serena noted.

Professor Sycamore nodded. "Diancie is said to be a sudden transformation of Carbink... but that's all we know on this Pokémon."

"So you guys totally found Diancie's friends!" Shauna said. "I knew you would do it!"

Lena wanted to question how she knew it, but decided against it. Better to keep her mouth shut.

"I can't believe what I'm seein'," Bill said. He sounded slightly dazed, and really, who could blame him? "Two legendary Pokémon at once! I don't believe it."

"Neither do the rest of us," Calem said. "What are two legendary Pokémon-"

Carbink stabbed Calem in the arm. He screamed.

"IT ATTACKED ME! Help, I'm dying, I'm bleeding, someone help-"

Ah. So his drama queen wasn't just for when he was attacked by Espurr.

"Like what Calem said, what are two legendary Pokémon and a Carbink doing in Santalune City?" Serena asked while Calem screamed that he was dying from "radiation poisoning", which was not the term Lena would use to describe the after effects of being stabbed by Carbink.

"We cannot tell you our reasons for being within this city," Diancie said. "We must leave immediately. We thank you for your help, humans. Victini, Carbink, let us go."

"Wait, wait!"

Tierno leapt in front of the doorway, spreading his arms wide to prevent them from leaving. "At least tell us how you got hurt!"

"Yes, you should at least tell us that," Trevor said. "Victini mentioned that you guys were being hunted? Pokémon hunters are after you?!"

Diancie turned to Victini. "You _told_ them?"

Victini rubbed the back of its head. "I-I'm sorry. I was panicking, and I wasn't thinking, and..."

"If Pokémon hunters are after you, we can offer you a safe place to stay," Professor Sycamore said. "It _is_ illegal to hunt certain Pokémon, and I'm sure that you three are on the list of those Pokémon that are illegal to hunt-"

"We are not being hunted by Pokémon hunters, as you may call them," Diancie said. Then she stopped. "No... We are being hunted by Pokémon hunters. However, they... are actual Pokémon."

"I see. You were involved in a fight, then..."

"It was not just a fight!" Diancie protested. "We are being hunted..."

"Diancie," Victini said. "We should... we should ask these people for help... We have to warn them."

Diancie exchanged a look with Victini. After a moment, she nodded. "I suppose you are correct, Victini. Warning these people of the danger that awaits them just may help us in our task..."

"What're you guys talking about?" Serena asked.

"Please listen, humans," Diancie said. "Listen carefully, for this is grave news.

"The Pokémon that you humans refer to as "legends" are planning to wipe out all humans from this earth, essentially taking it back from them and creating a Pokémon-only world.

"And there is only one way that we can stop them.

"And that is... to gather the Sky Shards."

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: And we have our story title.<p>

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS

What exactly are the Sky Shards? How are they linked to stopping the destruction of the world by the legendary Pokemon? And just what will happen to the three Pokemon who are being hunted?


	7. Chapter 7: VS Diancie

Author's Notes: In case you didn't know, the Sky Shards are an entirely made up item by me.

This chapter gets pretty random near the end. Not my best work, that's for sure.

I think I'm starting to ship Diancie/Victini. What is wrong with me.

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: VS Diancie<p>

Silence filled the room. No one knew what to make of Diancie's announcement. Even Lena, who usually had something to say about everything, was stunned into silence.

"Wait. What's that mean?" Shauna asked.

"The legendary Pokémon want to kill all of the humans," Calem said, stopping his drama queen act when he heard what Diancie had said.

"What? That sounds bad!"

"It _is_ bad, Shauna," Trevor said.

"Are you sure of this, Diancie?" Professor Sycamore asked.

Diancie nodded. "Yes. We... That is, we legendary Pokémon... We were holding a meeting. When we heard of what they planned to do, we immediately left to warn the humans. But we were being hunted. We tried to cover our trail, but it was quite difficult to do. We were attacked viciously by two other legendary Pokémon... And then we fell."

"Wait a sec," Bill asked. "What in the heck is a Sky Shard?"

"Well, it's capitalized, so it must be important," Lena said.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Sky Shards exist within six of these places that you humans refer to as 'regions'," Diancie said. "I have heard that you humans created 'Pokémon League towers' around their locations..."

"What?!"

"Hey, listen," Lena said. "I'm just going to flatline for the next, say, five minutes, so just talk away and pretend I'm not here."

"We were already doing that," Calem said.

"Stop joking around, you two, this is serious," Trevor said. "So what about these Sky Shards? How will gathering them stop the legendary Pokémon from doing what they want to do?"

"It will create an item capable of reaching the place where the creator of all resides, Arceus. I hope that, by allowing humans to reach the creator, we can convince the creator from continuing with its plan."

Everyone was silent again. Lena may have been stupid, but even she realized that their entire world was in danger.

"So...," Shauna said slowly. "The only thing... that we really _can_ do... is gather these Sky Shards. Right?"

Everyone mumbled their agreement. No one wanted to speak clearly at that moment. Even Professor Sycamore was looking worried about this. Who could blame him; they just got told that their entire world was in danger.

"Why would they want to destroy all of humankind, though?" Tierno asked. "Doesn't make sense to me."

"They are quite sick of humans and their actions throughout the many, many years," Diancie said. "It is quite a problem... A few of us made desperate attempts to talk the others out of it, but to no avail."

"When was this decided?" Professor Sycamore asked. "How long do we have until they put their plan into motion?"

Diancie lowered her gaze. "I do not know, unfortunately," she said. "I have not been keeping track of the time passage from the meeting until now. And we left before we could hear more of their plan. I am sorry."

"Don't be," Calem said. "You told us, and that's enough."

"What should we do, though?" Serena asked. "We can't just run around telling everyone that the legendary Pokémon intend to destroy the world. What're we supposed to do?"

"I suggest we wait," Professor Sycamore said.

"Wait?!" Bill exclaimed. "We can't jus' wait! It could happen tomorrow! We gotta tell someone about what's gonna happen!"

Professor Sycamore held up a hand. "I fear that the League Association won't believe us. And if we show them Diancie and Victini-"

Carbink squeaked.

"-and Carbink, they may take them away and hold them in an undisclosed location."

"What? Why would they do that?" Shauna asked.

"For their own safety," Professor Sycamore said. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I hate to admit it, but I think we should do something similar here. Diancie, Victini, would you-"

Carbink was glaring at Professor Sycamore. He stopped and said, "Diancie, Victini, and _Carbink_, would you be willing to stay at our lab to keep you safe?"

Diancie looked at him in shock. "Would you be willing to allow us to stay? No... I cannot allow it. Your lives may be put in danger by this."

"They won't find you here," Calem said. "It's a very safe place. You can stay here and rest and recover. My own Froakie received care from Professor Sycamore. You can trust us, too, if you're worried about that."

"But..."

"Let's stay here, Diancie," Victini said. "I think we should. It doesn't seem like these people are bad... They're helping us out."

After a long pause, Diancie spoke. "Yes... I suppose we should," Diancie said. "I thank you humans for your hospitality," she continued with a bow of her head. "If only the other legendaries knew of your kindness... Then we would not have such a problem."

"Rest easy, you three," said Professor Sycamore. "You can stay here as long as you'd like."

"Thank you... Truly."

* * *

><p>Lena was silent that night at dinner. They sat at the table, eating, while Lena's mother spoke about her own day.<p>

"Oh, how was your day, Lena?" her mother asked.

"Fine," Lena said.

Her mother narrowed her eyes at Lena. "You're lying."

"I'm not lying," Lena grumbled. "It's just... I found out some stuff today. Some big things."

"Like what?"

"Er."

Lena froze. She couldn't tell her mother about Victini, Diancie, and Carbink. Everyone in that room had agreed to not speak of the events of today to anyone else, not even their family members.

So Lena lied.

"It's just, I found out today that mozzarella really makes my stomach hurt," Lena said.

Her mother stared at her.

The only sound was that of the television, the channels flipping to a new one every second, as Espurr sat on the couch with the remote in hand. It had been doing this for the past fifteen minutes, and even though they didn't have that many TV channels to go through, it kept doing it.

"...Okay," her mother said. "I'll make a note to put plenty of mozzarella in our next meal."

"Evil woman."

"That's what they tell me."

Lena helped clear the table, and even decided to wash the dishes. Her mother was staring at her oddly the entire time; Lena never helped out with washing the dishes. Didn't dry them, didn't clean them... And yet, she was doing them of her own free will.

Lena thought as she scrubbed at the dishes. If they weren't able to stop the legendary Pokémon, what would happen to them? Would they all be killed by those Pokémon? What was it like to die?

"Lena, are you really okay?" her mother asked.

Lena looked back, giving her a smile. "Of course I am, dearest mother."

"Do I need to take you to the doctor?"

"Nope!"

Her mother frowned, tilting her head ever so slightly to the side. "...Is something going on? Did you and your friends get into a fight? I can give you advice if you did."

"Nothing happened with us, Mom," Lena said.

"Then what's wrong with you? You're quiet, you haven't complained about that Calem boy yet, and you didn't complain about Professor Sycamore's hair. What's going on with you?"

"It's nothing, really! I swear. It's just, uh, that cheese is really making me feel funky. Jeez."

Her mother looked like she didn't believe her, but she turned forwards and went back to watching TV with Espurr on the couch and her Raichu curled up on the floor.

* * *

><p>Over the course of the next few days, Lena and her friends went to go visit the three Pokémon after school. Diancie complained about many things, including their "living quarters" as she called the outdoor room. However, Victini and Carbink were perfectly fine with the outdoor room.<p>

On Thursday, the day before their field trip, they told Diancie, Victini, and Carbink about the field trip and how they needed to stay hidden and not leave the lab. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out the way they planned.

"You intend to head into a city for three days and two nights and you do not intend to visit me- I mean, us? How cruel of you! I demand that you bring us along."

"Diancie, you don't listen very well, do you?" Shauna asked.

"W-What? How dare you! I listen perfectly fine. I understood everything you were saying. You intend to abandon us."

"We're not abandoning you guys," Tierno said. "If it bothers you guys so much, we'll come back to Santalune whenever we can to visit you guys. How's that sound?"

"I suppose it is acceptable."

"What's a Lumiose City?" Victini asked.

"Well, it's a city where lots of people and Pokémon live," Tierno said. "There's lots of things to see in it, though. It's the only actual city in Kalos that isn't an airship—"

"...A what?"

It occurred to the group that no one had bothered to tell the three Pokémon that they were on a moving airship.

"Ah, I see, that would make sense," Diancie said after they explained the airships to her. "I see... And this airship intends to land on the earth to allow you all to leave the ship."

"Why would you want to leave the ship?" Victini asked.

"Why not? It's nice to get to see other places once in a while. After a while, seeing the same scenery gets boring."

"What is boring?" Diancie asked.

They all stared at Diancie.

"Uh," Lena said. "I've got something really important to do right now."

"So do I," Serena said.

"And me, too," Tierno said.

"Er, yeah, I've got to go, uh, run an errand for my mom," Calem said.

"I have to go pee," Shauna said, because she had no modesty.

Trevor looked horrified. "So you're leaving me to explain what boredom is to a Pokémon?!"

"Have fun," the five of them said and rushed out of the outdoor room before Trevor could respond.

* * *

><p>"An' you kids are gathered in my room... why?"<p>

Lena sat in Bill's computer room with Serena, Shauna, and Tierno. Calem had actually left the lab, apparently sticking to his lie to Trevor. Or maybe he really did have to run an errand for his mother. No one really knew.

"Uh, just waiting," Tierno said. "Just let us stay for five more minutes, please?"

"How's the computer fixing going?" Serena asked.

"Terribly. It just gets worse every day, these computers," said Bill. "I can't, for the life of me, figure out what's goin' on. It's why I haven't left this ship yet. I still haven't fixed the problem."

"What exactly _is_ the problem?" Tierno asked.

"The PC system ain't working," Bill said. "I developed it a while ago with my colleagues, though I was the main programmer for it. Within the past couple o' months, though, people haven't been able to access the PC and retrieve their Pokémon from it. It's a problem..."

"Why's it a problem?" Shauna asked. "What exactly is the PC for, anyway?"

"Well, it's a place to store your extra Pokémon. A single person is only allowed to have six Pokémon with them. The Pokémon Associations around the world declared that it was the best number for people to have. 'Course, it's possible to carry more than six, but it would be difficult to give all those Pokémon equal love and care.

"So we came up with the idea for the storage system. People can send their Pokémon through the system to the- Are you guys even listenin'?"

The four of them were clearly not listening to a word Bill was saying, if the fact that Shauna kept giggling at something Serena was doing was of any sign.

"I'm listening, sir," Lena said, even though she actually wasn't.

"No, you ain't," Bill said. He sighed. "Listen, can you kids leave? I need to-"

Someone knocked on the door. "Yes?" Bill asked.

The door opened, revealing a clearly-bothered Trevor. "I cannot believe you guys!" he said. "You left me like that... I had to explain to three Pokémon what _boredom_ was! I can't believe you!"

"You kids are horrible, if that's what you came here to do," Bill said.

"Well?" Serena asked. "Did you explain it?"

"Of course I did! That Carbink was threatening me every time I tried to run out of the room!"

"Yeah, that thing likes to stab people," said Tierno, who spoke from experience.

"And now we have an even _bigger_ problem!"

Lena gasped. "Bigger than Calem's ego?"

"YES! Diancie demanded that she come along on the field trip. She won't take no for an answer! What're we supposed to do now?!"

"Okay," Serena said. "Gather 'round. Here's the plan. We burn down the building."

"WHAT."

"Okay, not that plan? All right, we murder all the Pokémon in the building. No witnesses!"

"SERENA."

"Still no? All right. WE KILL PROFESSOR SYCAMORE, AND-"

"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE POKEMON?!" Trevor shouted.

"You're all insane. Completely insane," Bill said.

"Are you just now noticing that?" Lena asked.

Bill considered. "Nah, I noticed it a while ago."

"Well, good for you."

Bill looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut.

"So what are we supposed to do about this?" Trevor said. "As soon as I described boredom to them, they decided that they were definitely bored, and wanted a change of pace! What're we supposed to-"

"Isn't it obvious?" Shauna asked, grinning like a moron. "WE CATCH THEM!" she sang.

Everyone looked at her like she was stupid. She was.

"Shauna. We can't catch legendary Pokémon. That, uh..." Trevor stopped, trying to think. "Goes against... something... um..."

"Wow. Even Trevs can't think of a reason against Shauna's idea," Tierno said.

Trevor's face turned red. "T-That's not true! It's just... You know... um..."

Shauna ran out of the room. "I'LL GO CATCH THEM!"

"Shauna, you are not catching a couple of legendary Pokémon!" Trevor shouted, running after her.

"YEAH, NOT WITHOUT ME!" Serena sprinted out of the room after them. A loud, "OW," from what sounded like Trevor suggested that she may have shoved the short boy out of her path.

Typical Serena behavior.

"Wait for me!" Tierno said, rushing after them. Lena sighed, jumped off the chair she was sitting on, and ran after him.

* * *

><p>"So allow me to get this straight," Diancie said. "You wish to... capture me- I mean, us- in a red-and-white ball known as a Poké Ball?"<p>

"Yup!"

"And once we are in this ball, we will be able to experience this Lumiose City with you?"

"YUP!"

"I see." Diancie nodded. "I understand. I shall allow you to capture me within a Poké Ball."

"I kind of feel like we're doing something we shouldn't be doing," Tierno said to Lena.

"Yeah, but we can just blame it all on Trevor and Shauna if someone asks," Lena said.

"What? Why me?" Trevor asked.

"You're the one who told them about boredom," Tierno and Lena said.

"YOU FORCED ME TO!"

"Okay, here we go!" Shauna said, taking a Poké Ball out of nowhere.

"Hey," Serena said, "where'd you get that?"

"Huh? From my pocket, silly!"

"Wait, guys. Maybe we shouldn't do this," Trevor said, sounding rather afraid. "This is a bad idea. We're only allowed to have three Pokémon. We aren't supposed to catch anymore than that."

"Rules schmules! Here goes!"

Shauna spun around and tossed the Poké Ball at Diancie. Diancie shrieked and ducked. The ball flew over her head and rolled on the grass.

"What? Why'd you duck?"

"Shauna. You just chucked a Poké Ball at a Pokémon that only discovered what a Poké Ball was two minutes ago," Trevor said.

"Oh... Don't worry, Diancie! I'm just going to hit you with this Poké Ball-"

"You said nothing about hitting me with it!"

"Shauna," Lena said, "you can just tap her with it. Like you told me to do with Espurr. Remember?"

"Ohhh, yeah."

Shauna was a moron. She made Lena feel smart, but she'd never say that aloud.

Shauna skipped to pick up the fallen Poké Ball, and then skipped back to Diancie. "Here we go! Ready, and-"

"What are you guys doing in here?" Professor Sycamore's voice asked.

But it was too late. Shauna tapped Diancie with the Poké Ball, and the ball sucked Diancie inside. Victini watched, mesmerized, as the ball shut, encasing Diancie within it.

Professor Sycamore stood there, staring at them. "...What are you kids doing?" he asked. As if the scene in front of him wasn't obvious enough.

"Shauna, say it, say the line!" Serena said.

Shauna nodded, thrust the ball in the air, and shouted, "DIANCIE, GETTO DAZE!"

And everything suddenly seemed to make sense to their teacher.

"You caught Diancie? What... what... WHAT."

"My turn!" Serena said. "Victini, you're coming with me!"

Serena pulled out a Poké Ball from her skirt pocket and tapped Victini with the ball. Victini was sucked inside.

"VICTINI, GETTO DAZE!"

"We're so sorry, professor!" Trevor frantically said, bowing over and over again.

Lena suddenly felt like what they did was the wrong choice. She turned to Professor Sycamore, who was still standing there in shock. Her heart sank as she looked back at Shauna and Serena. The two were dancing in circles.

"We're sorry, Professor Sycamore," Lena said. "It's just, um..."

"Amazing!"

Lena stared at him. "...What."

"The legendary Pokémon allowed you to capture them?" Professor Sycamore exclaimed. "Amazing! Fantastic! Astounding!"

Lena wondered how many more adjectives he was going to use.

"But... No, wait. I have to be teacher-like." The professor cleared his throat and crossed his arms. "Why did you capture these Pokémon?"

"They wanted to come with us to Lumiose City tomorrow, Professor Sycamore," Tierno said. "So Shauna thought that, if we caught them, we could bring them along unnoticed."

"Hmm... That is a good idea..."

"Right?!" Shauna said.

"But what you did wasn't right. Though there are no official rules against it, most people frown upon the idea of capturing Pokémon spoken about in legends only."

Shauna and Serena's enthusiasm seemed to wilt.

"Well. Now I'm done acting like a teacher, so... Great capture, girls!"

"Thank you, professor!"

Lena sometimes thought that Professor Sycamore was slightly off in the head. This only reinforced that idea.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: I'm very sure that I don't like that last line of this chapter. It's just... bleh.<p>

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS

The field trip begins, but Lena gets lost in Lumiose City!... That's basically it.


	8. Chapter 8: VS Dedenne

Author's Notes: This chapter comes later than usual, thanks to me writing other things today and totally forgetting to update this one.

Anyway, this chapter's pretty boring. THOUGH WE GET MENTION OF TREVOR IN A MAID COSTUME, SO, YOU KNOW, THERE'S THAT.

Any questions, feel free to leave a review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: VS Dedenne<p>

Lena jumped on the hotel room's single bed, leaning back and stretching out her arms. It was so soft, so comfy... If only she didn't have to share it with Serena and Shauna.

It was the highly-anticipated field trip. They had arrived in Lumiose City earlier. It was an enormous city, easily three times or more the size of Santalune, and packed with people and Pokémon. There were so many buildings that surrounded them when they entered the city that it was hard to pick where to look first.

The three third-year classes that were going on the field trip had been led to the hotel they were staying at. It wasn't overly fancy, at least not when compared to the other hotels they passed in the city. Lena didn't know the name of the hotel, and she didn't care.

"Oh, my gosh, what should we do first?" Shauna was saying. She waved her arms around in excitement. "Should we take a look around the hotel? I heard they have a pool! I want to go swimming!"

"Yeah, they've got a pool," Serena said. "But I'm more interested in shopping. Lena, what about you?"

"I want to sleep on this beautiful bed forever and ever," Lena said.

"What, that's so boring!" Shauna said. "Let's go shopping! I can't wait to see the boutiques here in the city! But I heard a lot of the clothing is super expensive... Maybe if we pool together our money, we can buy a really nice pair of shoes."

"And who's going to keep those shoes?" Lena asked.

"Er..."

Serena frowned. "Lumiose is a stylish city. You get judged on how you look. So I'm sure that if the three of us looked super stylish, we can get discounts on a lot of things. There's just one little problem..."

Serena and Shauna turned to look at Lena, who had propped herself up on her elbows and was staring back at them. "What?" Lena asked.

"You're so not stylish, Lena," Shauna said. "Look at your outfit! You look like a boy with long hair!"

"Uh, if a boy ever wears shorts like mine, he should be arrested."

"But seriously, Lenny," Serena said, "you've got to look better if you want to do well in this city." She turned to Shauna. "Shauna, maybe your clothes will fit her. What've you got?"

"NO," Lena said with a firm shake of her head. "No way. I'm not wearing anyone else's clothes."

"Come on, let us dress you up a bit. Maybe you can even get a haircut. Revamp yourself, Lenny. Lumiose is a city of changes."

Lena stood up. "Okay," she said. "You leave me with no other choice."

"Yeah? What're you going to-"

Lena raced out of the room.

Shauna and Serena stared at the open door. "Uh... Crap."

* * *

><p>"Hey, guys, this place has a pool and hot tub!"<p>

Calem sat on the bed he was meant to, unfortunately, share with Tierno and Trevor. However, the three of them agreed that they would rather buy sleeping bags and sleep on the floor rather than sleep together in the same bed. Seriously, who made the room arrangements for this trip?

He rubbed at his ears. He'd been listening to music ever since they were waiting for the Santalune City ship to land outside of Lumiose City, and had only just taken out the headphones he'd stuck within his ears. He'd never admit it, but he was listening to his favorite idol, Nancy. No one knew he liked her. He was fully intending to never tell anyone, too.

"Calem, did you hear me? There's a pool here," Tierno said. "Man, I wonder if the girls brought swimsuits..."

"Did _you_ bring a swimsuit?" Trevor asked, narrowing his eyes at Tierno.

"'Course I did. You never know when you'll need a swimsuit. I even bring one to school."

Trevor was at a loss for words.

Calem stared at the floor in front of him, twirling around one of the headphones between his fingers.

"Hey, King, you're not your usual self today," Tierno said. "How come you're ignoring us?"

"It's just..." Calem paused, considering on whether to tell his friends what was on his mind or not. He let out a sigh. "It's just that I'm worried."

"About what?"

"About what Diancie and Victini said," Calem said. "I can't believe that the legendary Pokémon want to wipe out all of humanity. Well, I mean, I can believe it, but..." Calem wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. "What if they decide to launch their attack tomorrow? Or even tonight. What will we do then?"

Trevor and Tierno were silent. Calem kept talking.

"And the only way to stop them is to gather those Sky Shard things. But that's going to be impossible. Our ship is forbidden from leaving the region, so we'd never be able to go to the other regions and gather their shards."

"He has a point," said Trevor. He looked a little more worried now that Calem had brought it up. "Unless we're on one of the special ships that have permission to travel to the other regions, we'll never be able to gather the Sky Shards."

"But we all agreed not to tell anybody," Tierno said, frowning slightly. "I still think that if we told everyone about it, it might help out. The regions could willingly turn over their things to a group of trainers who are strong enough to face that Pokémon, Arceus. I think only the Champions stand a chance of doing that... But..."

They fell silent.

Tierno was the one to break that silence. "But, hey, even if the legendary Pokémon do attack tomorrow, if the whole world fights back, we might be able to win!"

Before either of them could answer Tierno back, someone knocked on the door. Calem stood from the bed and went to answer it.

Shauna stood there. She craned her head to peek into their room. "Is Lena in here?"

"No. I would never allow her to pass through this door and taint our room with the horror that she is."

"Yeah, okay, okay," Shauna said.

"Is Lena missing?" Trevor asked.

"Well, we wanted to dress her up, and she ran away. Trevor, can we-"

Trevor answered immediately, "NO."

"I was just gonna say-"

"NO, SHAUNA."

"-if you wanted to be dressed up by us instead. Remember last time, where you got dressed in that ma-"

"BE QUIET, SHAUNA," Trevor shouted. Tierno and Calem stared at at the much shorter boy, who was quickly turning as red as a tomato.

"...maid uniform," Shauna said and left.

"SHAUNA, YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T TELL!"

Tierno laughed hysterically while Calem just stood there, unsure of what to make of the fact that Trevor dressed up in a maid's uniform at some unknown point in his life.

Calem scratched at his cheek. But... hmm... They'd be going to Prism Tower later. How many years had it been since he last got to be there?

* * *

><p>Lena had no idea where she was.<p>

She'd left the hotel unnoticed, slipping by the teachers as they talked in loud voices in the lobby. Now she was somewhere in Lumiose, completely lost and without a single clue as to her current location. She had no map, either; Serena had been the one with her hands on the map that each group had been given.

Add in the fact that she had no idea what the name of the hotel they were staying at was, and she was screwed.

Lena felt the Poké Ball in her shorts pocket rock from side to side. She took out the ball, gazing through the see-through top at the miniature version of Espurr that rested within it. She proceeded to drop the ball to the ground; it burst open and releaesd the feline Pokémon.

"_Mraowr?"_

"Yeah, we're sort of lost, Espurr," Lena admitted. She scratched at the back of her head. "Ugh. I wouldn't have this problem if Serena and Shauna had just stopped bothering me... Now we're lost."

Various thoughts occurred to her. What if she didn't make it back to the hotel by the time it was dark? What if she missed lunch? What about dinner?! Please, anything but missing dinner.

She picked up Espurr and began to walk. Espurr crawled free from her arms and climbed up atop her head. Lena sighed. Thank goodness Espurr wasn't very heavy.

"Lumiose Galettes, freshly baked! Won't you try one... or a dozen?"

Lena noticed it. It was a street vender set up along the street, and many people crowded around it to get whatever in the world a galette was. She pulled out her wallet and checked it. Surely she had enough money to buy herself and Espurr a snack, right?

"Ooh, big brother, can we get a Lumiose Galette? Please, please, pleeeease?"

Lena heard the sound of a loud voice. There was a little blonde girl standing nearby, tugging on the arm of a blonde boy with glasses in a blue jumpsuit and pointing at the vendor. In a bag slung around her body was a orange mouse-like Pokémon.

"Bonnie," he said, "it looks really crowded. I doubt we'll get one in time."

"But Clemoooont. Pleeeeeease?"

"_Dedenneeeee!"_ the Pokémon in the bag said.

The boy scratched at his head. "Okay, I'll see what I can do. Stay here, Bonnie."

Lena watched in slight amusement as the boy approached the crowds of people. He waited patiently for the crowd to thin out, then spoke to the woman running the vendor. "Two Lumiose Galettes, please," he said.

"Sorry, we're all sold out! Please come back at one of our other schedule baking times."

A slightly sick part of Lena enjoyed watching the boy fail to get what he wanted. But soon enough, that was replaced with an even worse feeling; her guilt at feeling that in the first place. She watched as the boy, dejected, returned to his disappointed sister.

And something from a long, long time ago popped into Lena's head. Her father, bringing her to Sunyshore's market to buy berries. _"Sometimes, places like these will sell imperfects, Lena. They're berries that didn't turn out correctly, and aren't suitable enough in appearance to be sold to the public. But if you ask them to sell you the imperfects, they'll usually lower the price for them. Hey, sir! SHOW ME YOUR IMPERFECT BERRIES!"_

Lena walked up to the vendor. "Sorry, miss, we're all out of galettes," the woman said.

"SHOW ME YOUR IMPERFECTS!" Lena shouted.

The woman blinked a few times. "Pardon?"

"Er... Show me the galettes that weren't able to be sold," Lena said.

"We have quite a few that were burned upon baking them," the woman said. "I'll sell them to you at a cheaper price. How many would you like?"

"Two... no, make that four... no, five!"

Lena paid for the five slightly galettes – brown pastry-like things – and turned around. The boy and his sister were already far away from her. "HEY!" she shouted. "BLONDE KIDS! IN THE BLUE OUTFIT! HEY, WAIT!"

The two of them turned around in surprise as Lena rushed towards them. She came to a stop in front of them and held out three of the galettes to them. "Here," she said.

"What?! How did... I thought they were all out!" the boy said.

"I just asked for the ones that got screwed up while they were making them," Lena said.

"YAY!" the little girl squealed. "We get galettes after all! Thanks so much, miss!"

Lena handed a galette to her Espurr, while the little girl handed one to the mouse Pokémon in her bag. The five of them bit into the pastries in unison.

Lena felt like she'd just shattered all of her teeth. She tried to play it cool, tried to act like that hadn't just happened, but the boy and girl in front of her were wearing similar expressions on their faces.

"It's... um..."

"A little..."

"...hard to eat," the little girl finished.

Espurr dropped the galette to the ground and stared at it blankly, not blinking. The Pokémon in the bag did something similar, making a face as it dropped it to the ground.

"It's, um, not that bad," said the boy. He took another painful bite of the galette. "Yeah. Once you get used to it, it's pretty tasty."

"Clemont, you can stop," the little girl said. "Even she knows these aren't good."

"O-Okay... It's terrible."

"And that's why they weren't for sale," Lena said. "I guess the trick that applies to berries doesn't apply to pastries... Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," the boy said. "And thank you very much for doing that. It was very kind of you."

He and his sister began walking away. Lena turned away from them for a brief moment before she turned back.

"Actually, wait!"

They turned around as she rushed towards them again. "I'm lost," she said. "See, I was on a field trip with my class from Santalune City and I left the hotel and wandered around and now I'm lost. Could you help me find them?"

"Sure. What hotel are you staying at?"

"Uh... I don't know."

"Wait a sec!" The girl tugged on her brother's arm. "Clemont, she said she's on a field trip! Remember what that pretty girl who came to the gym yesterday said? That the Santalune City school was going to be visiting the gym today?"

"You're right, Bonnie, how could I've forgotten?" He turned back to Lena. "If you come back with us to the gym, you can wait for your classmates there."

"Eh?! Gym?!"

"Yes," he said. "I'm the Gym Leader of Lumiose City, Clemont. And this is my little sister, Bonnie."

"And don't forget Dedenne!"

"EHHHH?! You're a Gym Leader?! But you look like you're my age!"

"Clemont's super smart, and he's invented a ton of super awesome things," the girl, Bonnie, bragged. "So they decided he would be a great Gym Leader!"

"Wow, that's amazing!"

Clemont sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Not really. It's nothing special... It's a bit hard for someone like me to keep everything in the city in check, so I get a lot of help from the other Kalos Gym Leaders... I have them to thank."

"But let's hurry to the gym!" Bonnie said. "Before her classmates get there! And we've got to fix the elevator, too!"

"Right," Clemont said. He turned to Lena. "Miss, um..."

"Lena."

"Right. Miss Lena, please come with us. We'll lead you to the gym!"

"Right, thank you!"

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Did quick skimming over this chapter to proofread it. As such, there may be mistakes. Point out any spelling errors or words that don't make sense in the sentence they're being used in, if there's any. And I'll fix it.<p>

Dedenne's adorable, have I mentioned that before? Obviously not, that was a stupid question. And I love Clemont and Bonnie. Especially in the anime. They're one of the reasons I like the XY season so far.

I drew a picture of Bonnie and a Meowstic, so you can find that on my DeviantArt page. *hint hint*


	9. Chapter 9: VS Heliolisk

Author's Notes: Erk... I'm behind on writing the chapters. Before, I was at least two, three chapters ahead of the chapter I was posting. Now I'm zero chapters ahead. And I forgot to update on Saturday, too (though where I live, it's only 12:10 AM as I write this.) But I'll try to update later today.

I love Clemont and Bonnie, they're so adorable.

Also, this chapter features a battle! It wasn't planned, it just happened! Whoops! I feel a bit proud of myself for this particular battle, as I feel it's better than the usual battles I write. But it still needs some (probably more like A LOT OF) work. If anyone has any suggestions, please, give them to me!

* * *

><p>Chapter 9: VS Heliolisk<p>

"Lena's missing?" Professor Sycamore asked.

It was just as everyone was getting ready to leave the hotel and head for the gym for their first stop on the field trip. Shauna had searched the building high and low for Lena, but there was no sign of her anywhere in the building. She had a feeling that the short girl had left the building unnoticed, though how she manage to do so, Shauna had no idea.

"This is problematic," he said, rubbing at his chin. "If she doesn't join us by the time we leave, she'll miss the trip to the gym. Hopefully, if that happens, she'll learn her lesson on not following the rules."

Shauna nodded. She left to where Serena was waiting with Calem, Tierno, and Trevor.

"He says if she doesn't arrive by then, she'll miss the trip to the gym," Shauna said.

"Serves her right," Calem said. "She shouldn't have run off."

"In her defense, she was about to become a dress-up toy," Tierno said.

"Why do you guys always defend her?"

"Well, we defend you, too."

"I'm not the same as here."

Tierno decided to keep his mouth shut. Calem's eyebrows furrowed.

"What's with the silence?"

"N-Nothing," Tierno said.

Luckily, Tierno was saved by their teacher's announcement that they were getting ready to leave. Everyone gathered together in a large group there in the lobby. Shauna bounced in place in excitement. They were going to visit Prism Tower, where the gym was located. She'd seen Prism Tower from a distance; it was an enormous tower right there in the center of the city. There was supposedly an elevator that would take people to the very top, allowing them a view of the entire city from above.

Professor Sycamore reminded everyone to stay together as a group, and then they left the hotel. All thoughts of the lost Lena left Shauna's mind as they started down one of the streets. It was filled with shops, cafes, restaurants, and all sorts of things. A black mini dress in one of the store windows caught Shauna's mind, and she tapped Serena's shoulder and pointed at it.

"Isn't that dress so cute?!"

"Ooh, that _is_ a nice dress."

Shauna caught a glimpse of the price tag through the window. "Oh... No way, never mind on that."

The tower became closer and closer. Finally, they arrived in a circular plaza that surrounded Prism Tower. Shauna craned her head back to look at the building. It was enormous, and it shone in the sunlight, and via actual lights within the building itself.

"It's too bad Lenny's not here to see this," Serena said.

"Yeah...," Shauna mumbled. She fished out a camera from the bag she wore around her shoulders. "Okay, I'll take picttures just for her, then!"

And then, Shauna stopped.

Because running outside the gym, followed by an Espurr and two blonde kids, was Lena.

She ran up behind Professor Sycamore and started making stupid faces behind his back while the professor did a head count on everyone gathered there.

"Only missing one person, and that's because she didn't come with us," Professor Sycamore.

"She's right behind you," Calem said, because he was a murderer of everything having to do with the word "fun".

Professor Sycamore's face was priceless as he whirled around her. "Lena! Why in the world did you leave the hotel?!"

"Because aliens were trying to abduct me and bring me back to their home planet," Lena said. "Then I got lost, and Clemont and Bonnie here helped me out."

Calem was shocked. "You already got to meet the Gym Leader?!"

Shauna's mouth dropped open. She turned to look at the two kids standing next to Lena. One was a little girl, clearly not old enough to legally own her own Pokémon (and yet, in a bag slung around her body was a Dedenne), who was also picking up Espurr at that moment and holding it in her arms. The other was a boy, with round glasse and blonde hair like his sister, dressed in a blue jumpsuit-type outfit.

That boy rushed up to Professor Sycamore and stuck out a trembling hand to the man. "S-Sir!" he said. "I'm Clemont, Gym Leader of Lumiose City! It's an honor to meet you, sir! I've read much on your Mega Evolution research, and it really is an honor, sir."

Professor Sycamore laughed and took Clemont's hand, shaking it twice before releasing it. "It's an honor to meet you as well. The fact that a boy your age could become a Gym Leader... it's astounding, really, and quite impressive.

"_He's_ the Gym Leader?" one of the boys there asked in a loud voice. "He looks younger than us!"

Shauna nodded to herself in silent agreement. Clemont _was_ short, only a bit taller than Lena, and probably Shauna herself.

Clemont's cheeks turned pink. "It's true that I was appointed Gym Leader a year ago, when I was fifteen. But I'm still not used to the job, and it's a very time-consuming job... So I haven't been able to go to school like you guys do."

"Is being a Gym Leader really that difficult?" another boy asked.

Clemont gave a nod of his head. "It is. You have to watch over your entire city and make sure that everybody's happy with their surroundings. If there's a problem, you have to go and fix it, no matter what. Well, I actually wind up heading to the other Gym Leaders for help with my problems. There're a lot of gangs in Lumiose as of late, so..."

Shauna raised her hand. "Is it really worth it, though? Can't you just quit being a Gym Leader?"

"Well, you can't just quit your job immediately. You've got to wait until the Association finds a replacement. But I'd never quit my job, no matter how hard it is. It's worth seeing the smiling faces of people and Pokémon after you help them out..."

"You're so lame, Clemont," his sister said.

"B-Bonnie!"

"May we head inside?" Professor Sycamore asked.

"Oh, yes, sir. I just finished making adjustments to the elevator, too, so everyone can ride it. The most it can carry is seven people, including me, so please gather into groups of six!"

Shauna squealed and clapped her hands together. She rushed over to where Lena was, standing by the little girl named Bonnie who was still holding her Espurr. "Lena, let's ride the elevator together!"

"'Course I will. Bonnie, can you keep an eye on Espurr?"

Bonnie, grinning from ear to ear, said, "Sure thing!"

If Espurr looked bothered at being handled by a little girl, it didn't show it.

They waited in the line of students waiting to take the elevator, Shauna, Serena, Lena, Calem, Trevor, and Tierno did. Soon enough, their turn arrived, and they piled into the elevator along with Clemont.

"Here goes," Clemont said, reaching out and pressing a button on the elevator panel.

Shauna felt her stomach lurch as the elevator gave a small jolt before slowly moving up into the air. The walls were glass, and Shauna assumed that, at a certain point in the elevator ride, that they would be able to see outside and around at the city.

And sure enough. The darkness around them gave way to an astounding amount of sunlight. Shauna squinted, blinked a few times for her eyes to adjust, and then let out a gasp at the sight before her. There were so many beautiful buildings right there in that city, all surrounding Prism Tower.

"Wooow, this is so amazing!" Shauna squealed.

"Isn't it? It's the gym's pride and joy," Clemont said.

"I-I think I'm going to be sick," Trevor said, covering his mouth with a hand. He looked paler than he usually did, Shauna noticed.

"It's so pretty...," Serena mumbled in a hushed voice.

"It's not that amazing," Calem said, because he was still a murderer of everything having to do with fun. "Though I'll admit it's changed since last time."

They were all silent. Then...

"Wait, what."

"What're you talking about?! You mean you've been in this elevator before?"

"...I'm surprised that you figured that out so fast, Shauna," Calem said.

"What's that supposed to mean...?" Shauna grumbled.

Calem shrugged. "To answer your question, I have been to Prism Tower before. Didn't you guys know I was born in Lumiose City? The last time I was here, I was eight-years-old."

Shauna thought back. She herself had been born in Vaniville Town, but they had moved to Santalune City when she was still a baby, and had never visited Vaniville after that, so she'd never even been to her birthplace before. Lucky Calem, though, getting to be born in a city like this...

"This is so amazing!" Tierno said. He started hopping around. "Yeah, makes me want to dance!"

"Pleeease stop," Trevor moaned, now clutching at his stomach. "If you keep moving around, I think I'm gonna puke..."

Tierno reluctantly stopped dancing. Calem turned to Clemont.

"Say, Clemont. I was wondering, but would you like to battle me later on?"

"A battle?" Clemont asked.

"Yes. Two on two, how's that sound?"

Clemont considered. "I'm not the best battler, but sure, I accept your challenge!"

"Please don't start battling in the elevator," Trevor begged.

* * *

><p>"A battle? For the class?"<p>

"Yes, sir," Calem said.

They had been about to leave when Calem suggested the idea to their teacher. He knew for sure that Professor Sycamore would be for it; a "learning experience", he would call it.

"Sure thing! It'll be a learning experience!"

He hit the nail right on the head.

"Everyone!" Professor Sycamore called as Calem went to go inform Clemont of the battle. "Calem here has offered to battle Gym Leader Clemont for a class demonstration! Please, spread out and make room for the battle to take place!"

"Ehhh? Calem gets to battle Clemont? No fair!"

"He beat us to it."

"Damn!"

"So the battle's on, then?" Clemont asked. "Two on two, right?"

Calem nodded. "That's right. No rules. Whoever loses both Pokémon first wins."

"All right," Clemont said.

Calem's claassmates had moved out around the floor. That room was fairly large, enough room to have a battle in. The walls were a bit distracting, with blue and green panels flashing on and off, and the floor was lined with glowing tiles.

They took their places across the room from each other. Bonnie stood next to Professor Sycamore in the middle of the two.

"What're the rules that you boys decided on?" Professor Sycamore asked.

"Anything goes, two on two," Calem said.

"Right. All right, everyone! Let's quiet down and pay attention to the battle, all right? The rules are-"

"Can I do it?!" Bonnie exclaimed.

Clemont frowned at his sister. "Bonnie, manners!"

"Oh... Sorry, can I do the battle announcement, please? Please, please, pleeeeease?"

Professor Sycamore laughed. "Of course you can."

"OKAY! Calem and my big brother Clemont are gonna have a two on two Pokémon battle! No rules! The person with no Pokémon left wins! Are both trainers ready?!"

"Definitely," Calem said.

"So am I," Clemont said.

"Then let's start the battle! BEGIN!"

Calem took out a Poké Ball and threw it into the air. The ball burst open, and released the Pokémon inside. His first Pokémon: his Flareon, a small creature that stood on four legs, its body dark orange, the fur around its neck, atop its head, and its bushy tail were yellow.

Clemont sent out an odd-looking Pokémon to battle. It had three circular bodies, each with a single eye and two magnets attached to the body. The three bodies were attached together to form a single Pokémon.

Calem smirked. A Magneton, an electric/steel-type Pokémon. It was at a disadvantage for sure.

"Flareon, go! Use Fire Fang!"

"Electric Terrain, Magneton!" Clemont ordered.

Flareon moved first, dashing across the room, flames spurting from its mouth as it lunged at the floating Magneton, chomping down on it as hard as it could. The three eyes all squeezed shut in visible pain, but miraculously, the Pokémon remained standing. Surely that should have been enough to take it out? It wasn't a particularly strong Pokémon, and Calem's Flareon excelled in physical attacks like Fire Fang.

Magneton moved down to the ground, digging its magnets into the floor. Electricity surged through those magnets and swept across the room, covering the floor in visibly sparking electricity. Now it was Clemont's turn to smirk.

"Surprised? Magneton's ability is Sturdy," he said. He pushed his glasses up. "It allows a Pokémon to withstand a would-be one-hit-KO move, such as your Flareon's Fire Fang."

Magneton floated back up into the air. Calem frowned. He knew about that ability, but it had never crossed his mind that Clemont's Magneton would have it. In any case, he planned to finish this before Magneton set up another odd move.

"Quick Attack," Calem said. With a nod of its head, Flareon zipped forwards, faster than the eye could see, and slammed into Magneton. The three-bodied Pokémon collapsed to the ground, unable to battle any further.

But if Clemont was bothered by his Pokémon's quick loss, he didn't show it. He returned Magneton to its Poké Ball. "Go," he said, and tossed another Poké Ball, "Heliolisk!"

The Pokémon that emerged highly resembled a lizard. Most of its body was yellow, with some orange on its legs and black fingers, but everything above the neck was black.

"Thunderbolt!" Clemont shouted.

"Fire Fang!"

Heliolisk braced itself, then released a powerful bolt of electricity. The lights in the room flickered and dimmed. The bolt slammed into Flareon as it hurried towards it. Flareon was sent flying back towards Calem, rolling across the floor before it came to a stop. It wasn't moving.

"Shit," Calem muttered. He returned Flareon to its Poké Ball. "You did good, Flareon," he said. He replaced the Poké Ball on his belt and took out a second one. "Absol, I choose you!"

He sent out the Pokémon. All of its fur was white, its face was blue, and a black scythe curved up from the side of its head.

"Night Slash!"

"Thunderbolt, again!"

Heliolisk let off another bolt of electricity. Absol was quick to dodge, moving fast to leap out of the way. It landed close to Professor Sycamore and Bonnie, but then it was off again, dashing towards Heliolisk. With a swipe of the scythe on its head, it slashed Heliolisk across the body. Heliolisk hurried to retaliate, slashing Absol in the face. Absol leapt back, but not fast enough, as Clemont had given another order to Heliolisk:

"Focus Blast!"

Heliolisk was already focusing as Absol landed from jumping back. "No, Absol, dodge it-!"

But it was too late, and Heliolisk released the attack. A blast of visible energy rocketed forth, slamming into Absol's body. It flew across the room, and Calem jumped in front of it, allowing Absol to slam into his body. They both collapsed to the ground. Calem gasped as he sat up, the rather heavy Pokémon laying on top of him. Its eyes were shut, and its fur was a complete mess. After he'd spent so much time grooming it, too...

But no, that wasn't the thing to be worried about. "Absol, are you okay?! Absol? ABSOL!"

"D... Did I overdo it?" Clemont asked, turning to look around at the people around him. Calem only faintly became aware of their applause, though whether they were applauding the battle itself or Clemont's win, Calem didn't know.

"The winner is Clemont!" Professor Sycamore said, raising his hand in Clemont's direction.

Calem couldn't believe it. He'd lost a battle that wasn't against Serena? He was supposed to... He was supposed to be...

Calem shut his eyes and returned Absol to its Poké Ball, unable to look at his unconscious Pokémon any further.

He had lost.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Calem lost. Clemont's rematch battles are a pain, because his Magnezone always survives and sets up Electric Terrain. Then, Heliolisk comes out and STARTS MURDERING YOUR TEAM WHY WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT.<p>

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS (Which I failed to do last chapter, bad Loveon!)

I have absolutely no idea! No, really. I have a faint idea, but I'll have to see how it works out first before I post it.


	10. Chapter 10: VS Druddigon

Author's Notes: The Pokemon included in this chapter's VS title is so minor that it's not even funny.

Anyway. The second half of this chapter was inspired by a picture I saw by an artist on tumblr. If you want to see the picture in question, just go to weee3 at tumblr, then add post/66241134677 to the end of the url.

Anyway, here's the chapter!

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: VS Druddigon<p>

"Welcome back, professor!"

Two people were awaiting Serena, along with Shauna, Tierno, Calem, Trevor, and Lena, as they arrived with Professor Sycamore to his Lumiose City lab. The lab was fairly similar to the one in Santalune, though it was noticeably larger, with more floors and more windows.

The person who greeted them was a girl, probably two, maybe three years older than they were. She had dark skin – not much that unlike that of Lena – and dark, almost purple, hair cut to her chin. She wore a white outfit that looked like a uniform of sorts, with a red ribbon tied at her shirt neck. The other person was a boy, with blonde hair, also dressed in a white outfit that almost resembled the girl's, minus the skirt, plus pants. A small blue scarf-like thing was tied at his shirt neck, as if to contrast with the girl's red ribbon.

"Yes, thank you, Sina," Professor Sycamore said. He turned to the rest of them. "Everyone, these are my former students and current assistants, Sina and Dexio."

"Ooh!" Sina stepped up to Serena, getting a tad too close. Serena didn't mind, though. She invaded people's spaces on a daily basis, so it was fine with her when someone else did it back. "You must be Serena, then!"

"...Huh? How'd you know that?"

"Let me guess the rest of you," Sina said. She pointed at Shauna. "You're Shauna... That one over there is Lena... The really short ginger boy is Trevor. Big Guy over here's Tierno. And finally, you're Calem," she finished, pointing a finger at Calem. "Well?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear. "Did I get it right?"

Serena knew, without a doubt, that her friends were just as creeped out about Sina's accuracy as Serena was. Since no one else was answering (even the professor looked a bit stunned), Serena said, "You got it all right."

"Ha! See, Dexio, I told you I'd get it right!"

"I guess so," the boy, Dexio, said. He stepped up to Serena as well. "Nice to meet you, I'm Dexio. We're sort of in charge of the professor's lab in Lumiose while he's busy with his teaching job in Santalune."

"Sort of in charge? Try 'we are in charge'," Sina said.

"I guess we are." Dexio shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, now does it?"

"Not in particular," said Professor Sycamore. "Anyway, let's get inside. My student Calem here just lost a battle, and his Pokémon are in need of attention."

"Oh, no! Why didn't you mention that sooner, professor? Introductions could have waited until _after_ the Pokémon were okay!"

They rushed inside. The layout was slightly different, as there was an elevator located in the room instead of a flight of stairs. Professor Sycamore led them to this elevator, and they all piled inside as he pressed a button for the second floor. The doors closed, and the elevator began to move. Trevor whimpered; he still hadn't gotten over his motion sickness from the Prism Tower elevator. Serena couldn't help but feel bad for Trevs. He was more sensitive to things like that than they were. As soon as the airship landed or took off from the ground, it would start. It would take him a full day or so to get better, and then-

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Trevor was the first one out, and the rest quickly followed.

They were in a mostly white room, filled with computers and all sorts of machines that Serena had never seen before. No, wait... they did look familiar. They looked like the machines in the room where that Bill guy worked in Santalune.

"Calem, place your Poké Balls in this machine," Professor Sycamore said, walking over to a machine that was large and cylinder in shape. Blue glass surrounded several spherical indents in. When Professor Sycamore pressed a button on the machine, the glass opened up.

Calem placed his two Poké Balls in two of the machine's slots and stepped back as the professor pressed a different button. The glass closed, and the machine began to hum.

"They'll be okay in a bit, Calem," Professor Sycamore said. "Just wait a bit, all right?"

"How..."

They all turned to look at Calem. "Pardon?" Dexio asked.

Calem grit his teeth. "How could I have lost?" he asked in a quiet, hoarse voice. "I... I just can't believe it. I've never lost to anyone except Serena! How could I have lost a battle today?! I... I failed my Pokémon. They'll never... They'll never be able to trust me again..."

"What're you talking about?" Serena asked. She frowned at him. It wasn't like him to act this way just because he lost a battle. He constantly lost battles against Serena. Come to think of it, they hadn't battled recently-

Calem suddenly bolted, rushing for the elevator and jamming his hand on one of the buttons before anyone could react. They watched as the elevator doors closed and Calem disappeared, face hidden by his black bangs.

"What was that about?" Lena grumbled. "He's a freak."

"Not like you have much room to talk," Trevor mumbled.

"Hmm, what was that, Trevor?"

"E-Er, nothing," Trevor said. Serena locked eyes with him and gave him a nod. A wise choice made indeed, young man.

"Well, Calem's gone...," Professor Sycamore mumbled and rubbed the back of his head. Then he gave a slight shrug. "Oh, well. I'll just bring his Pokémon back to him later on, then. Anyway, I just wanted you kids to meet my assistants. They're former students of mine back in Santalune, and they just recently graduated, so I gave them jobs and-"

"I'm hungry," Lena interrupted.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

"What? I am."

Trevor sighed, Tierno grinned like he wasn't sure what else he should do, and Shauna and Serena had no reaction whatsoever. It was the exact thought Serena had been thinking, and had Lena not said it at that moment, she was sure she herself would have done so.

"Well, there are numerous restaurants and cafes located around Lumiose," Professor Sycamore said. "You kids can leave now. I'll make sure Calem gets his Pokémon. I'm sorry to have wasted your free time with this."

"No, it's not a problem, professor," Trevor said with a slight bow. "It's a great honor that you brought the six of us here today to meet your assistants."

"Hey, how old are you?" Sina suddenly asked.

Trevor looked around, then realized she was talking to him. "Sixteen. Why?"

Sina stared at him. "...Um-"

"Sina, don't," Dexio interrupted.

So she didn't say whatever she was going to say.

But as the five of them left the lab, with no sign of Calem anywhere, Serena began to feel worried. Her friend never had outbursts like that when he lost. Had losing to Clemont affected him that badly?

She would have to give him a little talk tonight.

* * *

><p>"I'm soooo hungry," Lena complained.<p>

They had split up from Trevor and Tierno to go find some place to eat. The two boys had also split from each other, Tierno claiming he wanted to visit some cafe dedicated to dancing and Trevor stating that he was going to go and find Calem.

"Guys, look at this restaurant!" Shauna called from up ahead. She pointed a building that had three stars above the doorway. A sign out front read "Restaurnt Le Wow".

"Let's check out this place!"

"All right! Don't know what kind of name Le Wow is, but we're eating there!" Serena shouted.

Lena shrugged. She honestly didn't care where they ate, as long as she got some food, and fast.

However. Things did not go as planned.

"I'm sorry, young ladies. This restaurant is three-stars... I'll have to ask you to leave."

"What? What's that mean?"

"It means that you cannot eat here unless you prove your worth as a trainer," the elderly man in front of them said.

"But we're hungry! We have the money, we can pay!"

"I don't have the money," Lena said, because she was a moron.

"Please leave. I cannot allow you three to eat here. Furthermore, your appearances are astoundingly terrible."

Shauna and Serena both gasped.

"What? I spent hours choosing this outfit!"

"Yeah, yeah! What d'you mean, our looks are terrible?"

"Don't be insulting my friends' styles," Lena said, stepping up to the man in an attempt to threatening. However, given her short stature, it was more amusing than threatening.

"Christophe, I'm sorry," a woman's voice said behind the three of them. "But they're with me."

Lena turned around. Standing there behind them was a woman dressed in white. Her hair was a black color, tied up behind her head in an intricate hairstyle. She looked a bit familiar, but Lena couldn't place where she'd seen her before.

The man gasped. "Madame Diantha, I'm so sorry, I had no idea! Please, I'll lead you to your seats right away."

Lena, for once, kept her mouth shut as they followed the odd woman into the three-star restaurant. Now she realized what a big mistake they had made. It was just a completely different atmosphere in here. All the people who sat at the tables looked incredibly wealthy and an aura of importance seemed to hang around them. The lights weren't very bright, providing a cool, calming atmosphere to the entire restaurant.

The man brought them to a large, round table with four chairs around it. Lena hesitated before she sat down in one of the chairs next to the woman who had lied to get them in. Serena sat across from her, and Shauna sat on her other side. The man passed them menus, bowed, and left.

"Thank you so much, miss!" Shauna burst out with as soon as the man was gone. "But... I don't think we really have the money to pay for our meals, so we should... you know, leave."

"Oh, don't worry about that," the woman said with a smile. "I'll treat you. Order anything you'd like!"

"WHAT?! REALLY?!"

People turned to glare at them. Shauna and Serena both blushed and lowered their heads; they had shouted in unison.

"My name is Diantha," the woman said. "I'm the current Champion of Kalos. In my free time, though, I love to act."

And Lena realized where she had seen her. She was a _Champion_, she had seen her on TV before! And an actress, too?! Lena had no idea such famous people existed in the world.

Shauna and Serena were now gazing at Diantha in complete and utter admiration.

"Okay, food," Lena said, and took a look at the menu. Then promptly realized she had no idea what any of these items were. "Er... Miss Diantha, could you choose for me? I-I don't know what's good."

"Really? If you're sure of that, then that's what I'll do," Diantha said. "What about you two? Have you decided on your orders?"

"Er, please choose for us, too," Serena said.

"Okay, okay," Diantha said, laughing slightly. "Let's see... You girls are still kids, so maybe something like..."

Diantha gave her orders to the waiter who came to their table. Lena stared at the woman in wonder. There was an odd necklace hanging around her neck. It was pretty. She wondered if it had some kind of special meaning to her.

The man who had prevented them from entering the building came back to their table. "Madame Diantha, before we give you your meal... I am sure you know what to expect?"

"Yes, of course," Diantha said, standing from the table. Lena stared at her in confusion. What was she doing?

Diantha moved out to the floor. Lena was only now noticing the large amount of space between all the tables. She wondered what was going on.

"Girls," Diantha said, "in order for our meals to be enjoyed to the fullest, the staff likes to make sure that the food is given right on time. So in between those waiting times, the people of this restaurant battle in order to pass the time. But if you spend too much time battling, your food will spoil. It's almost like a rule of the restaurant that you must battle while you wait."

Shauna gasped. "Y-You mean you're going to battle?!"

Diantha winked at her. "That's correct. Christophe, let's get this battle started, shall we?"

"As you wish, madame."

The two each took out two Poké Balls and tossed them into the air. The man, Christophe, released a blue and red dragon-type Pokémon, also with a metal-covered Pokémon with many spikes and green appendages to its body. Diantha, on the other hand, sent out a lilac dragon Pokémon that looked extremely slimy, with slime dripping from around its body, along with a feminine-looking Pokémon whose body was mostly white in color; it looked to be wearing a dress, there was a pinkish red object extending from its chest, and its head was green. It wore a pendant like Diantha's around its neck.

"Oh, my gosh!" Shauna squealed. "Miss Diantha has a Goodra, too! Soooo cute!"

Diantha's pendant began to glow in unison with the green and white Pokémon's pendant. A blinding light filled the restaurant, and when it faded, the Pokémon had changed apperance. The dress it seemed to be wearing had spread out around its body, and the pinkish red object had spread into two objects connected by the center.

"Gardevoir, Moonblast," Diantha said. "And Goodra, Fire Blast."

Gardevoir moved before Christophe could give an order to his Pokémon. It raised its hands in the air, visible energy gathering into a single large sphere which it launched right at the red and blue dragon Pokémon. The Pokémon never stood a chance, collapsing to the floor as soon as the attack hit it.

"Ferrothorn, use-"

Goodra moved next. It opened its mouth, letting out an intense ring of fire that flew towards the steel Pokémon and burned its body. It, too, collapsed to the floor.

"Very well done, Madame Diantha," Chirstophe said as he returned the Pokémon. "But let us see how you deal with these two, now."

The next two of his Pokémon were sent out. The first was a heart-shaped fish Pokémon that floated in the air; the second was an enormous mushroom-like Pokémon, with Poké Ball-like hands and a similarly patterned top of its head.

"Gardevoir, Thunderbolt, and Goodra, Fire Blast, again!"

"Amoonguss, Rage Powder!" the elderly man ordered. "And Alomomola, Ice Beam!"

The mushroom Pokémon was, surprisingly, the first to move. Lena thought for sure that, with its large body, it would at least be slower than the other Pokémon. It began to shake its hands, releasing a strange powder from its hands.

Gardevoir and Goodra immediately set their sights on Amoonguss. Gardevoir conjured a bolt of electricity that flew at the Pokémon. The mushroom Pokémon withstood the attack, and then received the full force of Goodra's Fire Blast attack. Its body was badly burned as it toppled to the ground, unable to battle any further.

But the heart-shaped fish Pokémon was still okay. Lena wondered why Gardevoir had not directed the Thunderbolt attack at it. Surely it would have been enough to knock it out as well?

Alomomola released a blue beam of crackling ice at Goodra. It slammed into the slimy Pokémon, and the Pokémon stumbled back, catching itself from dropping to one knee on the floor. Gardevoir now had its sights set on Alomomola, and released another Thunderbolt attack, this one taking out the Pokémon in question.

"As expected of the Champion of Kalos," Christophe said and returned his Pokémon. A waiter rushed to his side. "Ah, and it would appear that your food is prepared!"

Another waiter came over with a tray of food, setting down numerous food items that Lena had never seen before. She wished she had her camera with her so she could show her mother what weird stuff she was eating.

Diantha returned her Pokémon to their Poké Balls and joined them at the table again. "Well, girls, enjoy!"

* * *

><p>They had spent much of the time talking rather than eating, although the food was delicious. Lena couldn't pronounce most of the names of the food they were eating, and didn't plan to, either.<p>

Shauna asked questions about raising Goodra ("It's so cute, how can I increase its cuteness?) and Serena just stared at Diantha in wonder the whole time. When Diantha asked her questions, she would stammer in response. Apparently, being in the presence of a Champion was making Serena nervous.

"What about you?" Diantha asked, turning to Lena. "What Pokémon do you own?"

"An Espurr," Lena said.

"That she only got a few weeks ago."

However, instead of Diantha acting surprised at the amount of time took Lena to get her Pokémon, she smiled and said, "I understand. You wanted your first Pokémon to be special, didn't you? You didn't want a normal one."

"OH MY ARCEUS HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT."

Diantha laughed. "You seem like the type of person who would do that," she said. "Serena, and your Pokémon are...?"

Serena said, "Delphox, Altaria, Rhyhorn, and Victini."

Diantha smiled. "...Victini?"

Shauna and Lena were staring at her in horror. Why in the world had Serena just said that? Was she even listening to the words coming out of her mouth?

"Er, what're you talking about, Serena?" Lena asked, giving her a light shove. "I know you've always liked Victini, but why are you telling Diantha that you _own_ one? Stop being stupid."

"I totally own one, here, take a look at it," Serena said, taking a Poké Ball out of her skirt and showing it to Diantha. Lena grabbed the ball before Diantha could look at it... or rather, she smacked the ball across the room as hard as she could.

And then the ball opened up, releasing Victini from its confinement.

Shit.

"Huh? Where am I?" it asked, looking around the room.

Everyone in the restaurant was staring at them. Or rather, at Victini.

"Shit," Serena said.

"E-er, what a great Pokémon cosplay costume!" Shauna said and began laughing.

The three of them looked at Victini.

Serena lunged out of her chair, rolled across for no particular reason, then grabbed Victini's Poké Ball. She returned it to the ball, then ran for the entrance.

"Quick, guys, leave!"

"R-Right!"

"Thank you for the meal, Miss Diantha, but we have to go," Shauna said, and rushed after Lena and Serena.

Diantha stared after them, unsure of what to make of what just happened.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: I haven't actually battled at any of the restaurants in XY yet. I don't like that whole "defeat your opponents in this many turns" thing.<p>

Anyway, the end of this chapter isn't as completely random as it seems. You'll see.

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS

Calem is depressed from his battle against Clemont, so his friends try to cheer him up. However, who will succeed in doing so? Stay tuned to find out!


	11. Chapter 11: VS Ekans

Author's Notes: Erk, missed a chapter yesterday! I'm running behind!

The Ten Year Disappearances mentioned in this chapter is another thing entirely made up from me. It's not too important to the plot at the moment, and it probably won't come up again until much later. It only appeared in this chapter because that's where my brain let it go to.

Thanks for the reviews, follows, favs, and even views. They mean a lot to me, truly.

* * *

><p>Chapter 11: VS Ekans<p>

Serena burst into the room that Tierno, Calem, and Trevor shared. "HEY, GUYS! GUESS WHAT?! WE-"

Trevor shrieked, standing there in his briefs.

"Anyway," Serena said while Trevor dove to hide behind the bed. "Shauna says there's this old, abandoned house outside of Lumiose. We're gonna sneak out and go check it out."

"Serena, leave!" Trevor shouted. "I-I'm not dressed!"

Tierno exited their room's bathroom. "Trevs, you done changing?"

"What? He made you hide in the bathroom so he could change?"

"Yeah. Trevs is shy like that."

Serena looked back into the bathroom. "Where's Calem?"

"I haven't seen him since dinner," Tierno said.

It was the second day (or rather, night) of the field trip. They had spent the day visiting every cafe in the city at Professor Sycamore's orders. Only their class had done this; the other classes visited other places.

Serena frowned. She had noticed earlier today that Calem wasn't his usual self. If anything, he seemed a bit depressed. Serena suspected that it was because of his loss against Clemont. She had thought that bringing him to the haunted house would cheer it up, so she told Shauna and Lena to wait a bit while she got the boys of their group.

"Do you know where he is?"

"No. Like I said, I haven't seen him since dinner."

"Can you both just leave?!" Trevor shouted from behind the bed.

"I'm gonna look for him. Meet us down in the lobby in ten, guys," Serena said.

* * *

><p>She found Calem down in the pool, training, of all things, withi his Froakie. The two of them were in the water, and Froakie was manipulating the water with its hands.<p>

"What're you doing?" Serena asked. Calem screamed because he was manly and stared at her with wide eyes.

"I thought I was alone! How long have you been watching me?"

Serena lied. "The past twenty minutes."

"Why?!"

"Cause I felt like it," Serena said. "Anyway, what're you doing with Froakie in the pool?"

Calem frowned. "I'm trying to teach Froakie a new move, but it's not going well, so I thought... if we headed to the pool and tried using the water there, he'd get the hang of it."

"Ah. That's really smart."

"Is it? I just thought of it spur of the moment, so..." Calem shook his head. "What're you here for, Serena? Do you want something?"

Serena walked to the edge of the pool. "Yeah. We're checking out a haunted house outside of Lumiose. I wanted you to come along."

"I can't."

Serena stared at him for five seconds before she swung her leg at Calem, who managed to dive under the water just in time. He burst back up, an angry look on his face.

"What was that for?"

"You know, I honestly don't know," Serena said. "Whatever, though. You're coming with us."

"No, I'm not!"

A tiny frown appeared on Serena's face. "Calem... I know that losing to Clemont hurt you pretty badly."

Calem gave a tiny twitch. Then he said, "I'm fine, it doesn't bother me."

"It does, though. You're upset. Because I'm the only person that you ever lost to."

"Thanks for rubbing it in, Serena."

"No prob. But seriously, you're upset. Right?"

Calem sighed. He pulled himself out of the water, leaving Froakie to swim around in the pool at its leisure. "...You're right, Serena," he said. "I feel like I've... failed my team. And now I hear people talking. They all know about my loss. They say things like 'Calem's not so great, is he?' or 'I guess he's not as strong as he boasts to be.' And to be honest... I think they're right."

Serena opened her mouth to protest, but Calem held up a hand to silence her. "It's true. I act like I'm the strongest person in the world, when in reality, I'm not. I just... I guess I want to make my dad proud. He left home when I was little, told me that he'd meet me again and battle me when I won a lot of battles."

She didn't know what to say. She knew Calem's father had left when he was young, but she had heard that from his mother, not Calem himself. She didn't say that, though.

"...I'm sure you'll meet him, one day."

Calem looked up at her, then smiled. "Yeah. You're right. I'm sure-"

"STOP FLIRTING!"

Serena let out a shriek and spun around. Standing there was Lena and Shauna. Lena looked agitated, but Shauna looked giddy.

"Hee-hee... Serena, I had no idea!"

"Had no idea about what?" Serena asked.

"That you had a crush on Calem."

Serena, in spite of herself, felt her cheeks get hot. "W-what? I don't... That's ridiculous!"

"Yeah, seriously," Calem said. "Rivals can't like each other like that. It goes against the whole rival rule."

Serena wanted to let out a sigh of relief. Thank Arceus Calem was so obsessed with being her rival that he didn't even consider her as a love interest. At the same time, though, she felt a bit offended.

"You guys are taking too long," Lena said. "Professor Sycamore's watch duty's gonna end soon. You know he's so busy flirting with the receptionist that he won't notice us leaving. But if any of the other teachers come, we're screwed. So let's go."

"Can I put on my clothes first?" Calem asked.

Lena considered. "Nah, we'll use you as fanservice bait for the ghosts."

"You bitch."

"YEAH, WELL, BLEH."

* * *

><p>Sure enough, the professor was too busy flirting with the receptionist to notice the six of them sneaking of the building. The cold air washed over Serena's body as they stepped outside and began hurrying through the streets. Night in Lumiose City was amazing; the buildings seemed to sparkle even more in the darkness.<p>

It seemed to take a long time to reach there. Shauna claimed to know the way, saying she got directions from an upperclassman before they came here.

Finally, they reached one of the exits to the city. It was, according to a sign, on North Boulevard, and looked as though it hadn't been visited in years. The area was a mess, with old, debilitated buildings and garbage lying around.

Serena stepped over chunks of concrete that were piled on the ground, following the eager Shauna as she led the way to a collapsed building.

"Is that the haunted house?" Lena asked.

"No, of course not! This is the old gatehouse that used to lead to a place known as a route," Shauna said. "It's a bit further from here."

They ducked inside the old gatehouse. The roof had collapsed partially, cutting off the other half of the room completely. Serena had to duck her head as she walked to avoid hitting her head against anything.

At the end of the gatehouse was a different world, even more so than the mess that the gatehouse area had been. There were many, many trees all around them, and a hill covered in tall, dying yellow grass. Serena hurried through the grass, heading up the hill. And from there on was a marsh. Water filled the area, leaves and plants residing within the water itself. The water was a murky, black color.

"Now, according to that upperclassman, the next stretch is dangerous," Shauna said. "So everyone get ready to use your Pokémon if trouble arises, all right?"

Serena fished out her Poké Ball from her pocket, Delphox within it. She was, she had to admit, very excited about this. The sense of danger to reach their goal only made it more exciting.

As they started through the marsh, the trees rustling, Serena heard a flapping noise and ducked. Trevor, because he was manly, let out a scream.

"Shh!" Shauna said.

"S-Sorry..."

After a moment in which they stood completely silent, they kept walking.

The marsh wove around many trees. They passed a couple and logs, and Serena was sure she saw glowing eyes from within one of those logs.

Finally, they reached it. It was an old, old house. It was made of wood, and seemed to be only one-story tall. Shauna clapped her hands with glee and rushed up to the front door. Lena was close behind her, as was Tierno. Serena broke into a run to reach them as well.

Shauna opened the door, and Serena peeked inside. There were lots of kids in there, talking to one another in hushed voices.

Shauna shoved the door open. "HI, EVERYONE," she practically shouted.

"SHH!" everyone said back.

"Hurry in and close the door behind yourself," a girl said. Serena hurried into the old house, watching as Trevor and Calem, both looking unamused by this event, came in last.

"All right," the girl said. She stood at the head of the group of students. "What time is it? Anyone?"

"Two minutes till eleven," one of the kids said.

The girl nodded. "Okay, then. We'll just start now, since I have the feeling no one else is coming. Everyone, please get seated and comfortable."

Serena took a seat on the dusty floor. Shauna leaned over to her. "That's the upperclassman who told me about this place!" she whispered. "She said she had a creepy story to tell us, along with something important."

Serena nodded, turning forwards. The girl was ensuring that everyone was seated. Behind her stood another girl, who seemed to be the same age as the first one. She wore a smile on her face, but was visibly trembling.

"Let's begin," the girl said.

"First off, I'd like to tell you of something very important. Have any of you heard of the Ten Year Disappearances?"

No one spoke, so the girl continued.

"Like the name suggests, it's an event that happens every ten years. People begin to vanish suddenly, never to be seen again. The Pokémon Association has never officially acknowledged the name or event, so it's not well-known. Because the disappearances happen all over the place, one doesn't usually hear about it about the news or anything like that. For example, one disappearance could occur in Kanto, but the other could happen in Unova. Sure, they might mention a single missing person, but no one ever notices that a ton of people disappear every ten years.

"My father's been researching the Ten Year Disappearances. He has told me that this year is the year in which the Ten Year Disappearances will happen again."

Someone raised their hand. "What causes the disappearances?"

"No one knows. Some people in my father's line of work suspect that it's a Pokémon, while others believe it's the doings of a rogue region, kidnapping people as payback for their rogue region status. No one is certain about this."

Serena gulped. That was scary enough in itself, to know that the Ten Year Disappearances were happening this year. What would she do if one of her friends or if her mother was suddenly taken away, never to be seen again?

"What about your scary story?" Shauna asked.

"Oh... Right," the girl said. "Um, let's see...

"In Unova's Castellia City, there were rumors of monsters lurking in the sewers."

The girl stopped talking and smiled.

After about twenty seconds of silence, someone spoke. "That's it?"

"Yes, that's it!"

"What a terrible story," the girl behind her said. Yet she was still trembling. "My stupid brother knows better scarier stories than that one."

"Oh, quiet, you!" the girl said back to her apparent friend.

"Are we done yet?" another kid said.

"Yeah, this was a waste of my time."

"I... just wanted to let you all know what was going on," the girl said. "So you wouldn't be in danger..."

Something scratched on the front door, and more than half of the room screamed.

"W-w-what was that?!" the girl who had told the story stammered. "S-Someone look out the window!"

Tierno jumped up and rushed to the window. He went pale.

"We've got a problem," he said.

"We've been caught by the teachers?!"

"Worse," he said, and turned back to look at them. "We're surrounded by tons of wild Pokémon!"

"What kind?!" Shauna asked.

"Does it matter?! Ekans and Arbok and a whole bunch of other Pokémon!" Tierno backed away from the window, shaking his head. "No way am I going out there! I hate snakes!"

Serena jumped up and took out Delphox's Poké Ball. "We're gonna have to battle them!" she said. She looked back at everyone in the room. "Come on, everyone! Let's fight our way back to the city!"

"RIGHT!"

Serena rushed out of the house. The Pokémon waiting outside were all over the place, and vast in number. When had they all gathered here? _Why_ had they gathered here?

A group of Ekans moved first, lunging forwards. Serena sent out Delphox. "Flamethrower!"

"As you wish," Delphox said. It opened its mouth and released a jet of flames across the area at the group of Ekans. The Pokémon hissed, retreating back a bit, some of them getting burned by the flames.

Serena looked back. "Come on, everyone! What're you waiting for? Let's go!"

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Boring, slightly uneventful chapter is boring. But we had some ship-teasing between Calem and Serena... so there's that, you know.<p>

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS!

The battle to return to Lumiose begins! Can the students, who shouldn't have been out of the city, make it back? Or will they be saved by the teachers and get in trouble? Stay tuned to find out!


	12. Chapter 12: VS Arbok

Author's Notes: The reason this update took a week is simply because I kept rewriting the chapter. This is the fourth version of chapter twelve that I've written... it took me four times to get the chapter right, and I took it in a completely different direction than what I had planned for it.

Also, I'm trying to do NaNoWriMo this year. Again. Hopefully I'll finish... Yeah... Come on, Loveon, you can do it...

Anyway, the battles in this chapter are pretty weak. I can't seem to find the trick to writing a good battle. Any tips, anyone?

* * *

><p>Chapter 12: VS Arbok<p>

The fight was on.

Calem found the Pokémon around here weren't very good fighters, as well as being cowardly. All they needed was a good spray of Froakie's Scald attack and then they were running back into the trees.

Froakie landed to the ground, turned back to look back at him. "...We're doing good, are we not?" it asked.

Calem smiled. "Yep. Good job, Froakie."

Froakie turned forwards. "I am only following your orders, Calem. Good job to you, my friend."

Calem gave a slightly laugh, scratching the back of his head. And then, _she_ had to appear and ruin it.

"Your Froakie's weird as hell."

Calem's eye twitched as he spun around, looking at the short girl that he hated so much, Lena. She stood close by, her Espurr clinging to her leg. However, neither of them were fighting.

"Do something, won't you?" he asked. "Stop standing there doing nothing!"

"I only attack when attacked," Lena said. "_Isn't that right, Espurr?"_ she cooed to her little demonic Pokémon.

Espurr turned to stare at Calem and hissed.

It took everything Calem had to not murder Lena and her demonic Espurr right there. He sighed and turned forwards. He really wished she wasn't so close by right now. How was he supposed to focus with her being stupid like this?

He turned his attention elsewhere. Serena was also close by, battling along Shauna and her Chesnaught with her Delphox. Delphox set the water on fire for a few moments to frighten the Pokémon into running away, while Chesnaught scooped up the Pokémon and threw them into the trees.

Trevor was on the back of his Aurorus, a light blue, long-necked Pokémon that was freezing Pokémon to the ground with Ice Beam. And Tierno was hiding inside the cabin, too terrified of the many snake Pokémon to leave the house and assist in the battle.

"Calem," Froakie said in a panicked voice. Calem spun around to see what had Froakie so freaked out.

And then he saw just what had freaked Froakie out.

A long purple snake Pokémon, larger than the rest and with an odd pattern on its wide chest. It towered over them, eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Crap," Calem said. "Scald!"

Froakie nervously nodded, then sprayed the Pokémon with boiling water. The Pokémon, which Calem recognized as an Arbok, let out a hissing sound before lunging forwards, snapping its jaws down on Froakie's body. Froakie let out a cry. He struggled to escape Arbok's clutches, but the Pokémon lifted him into the air.

"FROAKIE!"

"Espurr, use Confusion!" he heard Lena shouted.

A small blast struck Arbok, startling it into releasing Froakie. Calem rushed forwards, catching the falling Froakie before running back to where Lena was. Froakie was shivering, and beads of sweat were appearing on its face.

"Poison," Calem muttered. "Okay... You leave me with no other choice!"

He took out his other two Pokémon's Poké Balls and threw them into the air. Absol and Flareon appeared in bursts of light, ready to fight.

"Flareon, Fire Fang! Absol, Razor Wind!"

Absol whipped its head around, whipping up a strong wind while Flareon dashed forwards. It lunged at the still-stunned Arbok, biting down with fire being expelled from its mouth. Arbok hissed and flung its body to the side, sending Flareon flying off towards a tree.

Flareon hit the tree, fell to the ground, but quickly got back up. Calem watched as Arbok began slithering at a fast speed towards Flareon.

"Now, Absol!"

Absol whipped its head forwards, sending nearly visible blades of wind flying through the air. It slashed up the cobra Pokémon, and it now turned its sights onto Absol.

"Calem...," Froakie mumbled.

"Hang on, Froakie!" Calem said.

"No... I..."

"Calem, we'll help!" Serena called from nearby, hurrying towards him with Delphox, Shauna, and Chesnaught. Another glance showed that Trevor was also coming towards him on Aurorus's back. Even Tierno had stepped out of the house, ready to help his friend.

"NO!" Calem shouted. "This is our battle! Absol, jump!"

Arbok swung its tail at Absol, who leapt high into the air. It landed behind Arbok, then swung the blade on its head, creating a deep slash across its back.

Flareon chomped down on Arbok's tail as Absol attacked its back. Arbok began thrashing about, swinging its tail and Flareon from side to side.

"Calem..."

Calem looked down as Froakie began shuddering. He panicked for a short moment, but then realized what was happening.

A faint light overcame his body, and Froakie began to change shape, getting bigger in size. Little spikes sprouted from the area between his eyes, and his arms and legs grew in length.

When the light faded, Froakie was no longer the light blue color he had been before. He was a darker blue color on his face, and a slightly lighter blue on the rest of his body. His eyes still retained their yellow hue, but their naive innocence from before had vanished completely.

"Frogadier," Calem said in a hushed voice.

Frogadier leapt out of his arms and to the ground. He was still panting, and looked to be in visible pain.

"All right... Frogadier, use Quick Attack!"

Frogadier moved, quick as a flash, and slammed into Arbok's body. The Pokémon let out a final cry of defeat before it collapsed to the ground. Flareon released its tail and rushed back to Calem, as did Absol.

"Great job, you three!" Calem said. He hugged the three of them, though Absol didn't look very happy about the sudden display of affection. Calem didn't care, however; he was too happy about their win to care.

Trevor's voice reminded him that his friends were still there behind him. "Let's hurry back to the city, before more Pokémon appear," Trevor said. It was then that Calem noticed the area was clear of Pokémon.

Calem nodded. "Let's go!"

* * *

><p>They had not been expecting their teacher to be waiting on the other side of the destroyed gatehouse with all of the kids who had headed out to the cabin.<p>

"Uh, think I forgot something back out there," Lena said, turning around and walking back through the gatehouse. Tierno took her by the shoulders and turned her back around.

Professor Sycamore was not a happy man at that moment. Calem had never seen that look on their teacher's face before. He supposed that it was anger, but there was some other emotion that Calem couldn't quite place.

Either way, he knew they were in trouble.

And sure enough.

"What were you all thinking?" Professor Sycamore asked, looking over the group of students in front of him. "Heading out of the city... at night! Do you realize how dangerous that was? What if your Pokémon hadn't been strong enough to deal with all of the wild ones outside? You could have been killed!"

"We're really sorry, sir," Tierno said. "We just wanted to have some fun..."

"At the cost of you and your Pokémon's safety, no less. I cannot believe you were all so... so ignorant!"

Calem was silent. He looked down at Frogadier's Poké Ball. It was true; he had put his Pokémon's safety at risk. Even now, Frogadier was badly poisoned and hurt from that fight with Arbok.

"Now, we're going to head back to the hotel," Professor Sycamore said. "There, I'll let your teachers deal with you. As for my own students, I will tell you your punishment when we get back to Santalune. And it will not be pretty."

They all began following the professor back through the streets of Lumiose. Calem felt like an idiot. He should have never agreed to going out there. He secretly blamed Lena, even though it had been Shauna's idea. They were both morons, so they were both at fault in his eyes.

When they reached the hotel, they found the other teachers gathered in the lobby, looking even more furious than Professor Sycamore did. They endured a good ten minutes of speeches and insults to their intelligence.

Finally, they were allowed to go back to their rooms for the night.

Calem sat on the floor of their hotel room, rummaging through his bag until he found the berry pouch he had brought along. He pulled out a pink berry and handed it to the frog Pokémon that sat beside him.

"That should kill the poison," he said.

"Thank you, Calem," Frogadier said, taking the berry and hurrying to devour it.

Calem sighed and leaned back against the bed. Trevor was in the bathroom, while Tierno had left to go talk to the girls.

"I do wonder what kind of punishment the professor will give out," Frogadier mumbled.

"So do I. I'm sure it won't be too bad, though. He's not the type to give out super harsh punishments," Calem said.

Trevor exited the bathroom. "Bathroom's free, Calem," he said.

"Thanks."

And as Calem brushed his teeth for the night, he wondered how his Flareon and Absol were feeling. He'd have to talk to them tomorrow... He hadn't really spoken to them after their loss to Clemont.

* * *

><p>When Calem headed down into the lobby the next morning, a group of girls he had never seen before surrounded him, giggling and asking tons of questions all at the same time.<p>

"Wait, what're you all talking about?" Calem managed to ask.

"We saw your battle against that Arbok yesterday," one of the girls said.

"And we're in love with you now!"

Calem didn't know what to make of that statement. He thanked them for their compliments, then hurried to find his friends.

"Hey, Calem," Tierno said. "Everyone's talking about you, you know."

"What? Why?"

"Because Shauna ran around telling everyone about how you defeated the leader of the attacking Pokémon yesterday."

Calem turned to Shauna. "How did you know it was the leader?"

"What? I don't know if its the leader. I just did some rewording to make things sound cooler."

Calem smacked his forehead and sighed. She was a moron.

"Hey, Calem!" a boy across the room called. "When we get back to Santalune, can I battle you? I want to learn some tricks from you!"

"Me, too!"

"Yeah, taking out the leader Arbok was really something... I wish I hadn't missed that battle."

Calem didn't know why, but everyone talking to him in such a positive way... It almost cheered him up a bit. No, not almost... It really _did_ cheer him up. After everyone had been disappointed in him for losing against Clemont, it seemed as though their opinions of him were improving once again.

Calem smiled.

* * *

><p>Calem examined the rows of Poké Balls in front of him. "All right... Just give me ten regular Poké Balls, five Luxury Balls, and two Premier Balls."<p>

"You shouldn't say balls that often, Calem," Lena called from across the room.

Calem snapped at her to shut up as he paid for the Poké Balls. He didn't know what Pokémon he was going to catch in them, but it might be useful to Professor Sycamore's research to see how different Poké Balls affected the Pokémon captured.

As they left the store, listening to Lena's pointless babbling on what kind of souvenir she should get for her mom, Calem noticed someone nearby. Someone he recognized.

"Hey, Clemont, Bonnie!" Lena shouted.

Calem's heart sank. He didn't want to face Clemont, not after his painful loss against him. But Clemont came over with his little sister in tow.

"Shopping?" Clemont asked.

"Not really," Lena said. "Say, what kind of souvenir do you think I should get for my mom?"

Bonnie started listing off numerous items she could buy. Clemont turned to Calem, but Calem quickly looked away.

"Calem, thanks for battling me the other day," Clemont said. "I hope there's no hard feelings about that battle... Are your Pokémon okay?"

"They're fine," Calem said.

Calem couldn't bear talking to Clemont. He'd lost to a kid shorter than him. Now those feelings of disappointment and defeat were flooding back again, and he felt another wave of depression coming over him.

"I hope we can have a rematch someday," Clemont said.

That got Calem's attention. He looked up at the blonde boy. "...Why?" he asked. "You won once. Isn't that good enough?"

Clemont blinked. "I'd just be glad to face you and your Pokémon again. They were really strong, and I admire them. And you, too. You're confident in your abilities, unlike me... Heh, maybe you should be the Lumiose Gym Leader instead!"

"Don't start in with _that_ again, Clemont!" Bonnie said. "You're the Gym Leader of Lumiose and there's no getting out of it!"

"Ahaha... Guess you're right."

Clemont held out his hand to Calem. "So how about it? Want to have a rematch the next time we meet?"

Calem took his hand. "Yeah. And I'll be stronger next time, too."

"Same here."

"ENOUGH WITH WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING," Lena shouted. "SOMEONE HELP ME PICK OUT A PRESENT FOR MY MOM."

* * *

><p>The last day of the fied trip arrived. Calem was packing his suitcase along with Tierno and Trevor.<p>

These past few days had gone by both quickly and slowly. Calem couldn't believe the field trip was over already. But he felt like he had accomplished something. Froakie had evolved, he'd lost a battle but perhaps got a new rival out of it, and... What else?

He heard a familiar voice's screams out in the hall. "I STILL DON'T HAVE A SOUVENIR, SHE'S TOTALLY GOING TO KILL ME!"

Calem smirked. And was at the same time shocked. Lena still hadn't found a souvenir for her mother? Good Arceus.

…Maybe he could...

* * *

><p>"Okay," Lena said as they gathered in the lobby of the hotel. "I managed to buy a really cheap scarf from some random store. Let's hope she likes that."<p>

"That's why you should've bought her souvenir sooner," Trevor dully noted.

"Whatever."

As they left the hotel, Calem walked up alongside the short girl. She shot a glare at him.

"What do you want?"

"If you need another gift, I can let you take some of the Poké Balls I bought."

Lena narrowed her eyes. "...Why would you offer me that?"

Calem shrugged. "As thanks for your helping me out the other day. You were the one who got Froakie out of Arbok's mouth, remember?"

"...Oh. Well, in that case, fork over your balls. And also, the Poké Balls."

Lena burst out laughing hysterically at her own joke.

"I take back the offer."

She stopped. "Whut."

"You don't get anything from me."

"What? What? I-I was just kidding, Calem! Please give me a Poké Ball! My life depends on it, really, it does! Calem? CALEM? CALEM?! _CALEM!"_

And thus, their field trip ended.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: And the really weird, awkwardly written field trip arc ends! A lot of these chapters focused on Calem, because I felt like it. And Froakie evolved! Yay!<p>

There are a couple of other Kalos characters that I want to include in the story, but can't figure out how. Like the Battle Chatelaines and Looker and Emma. I wonder how I can incorporate them into the story... Hmm...

NEXT TIME ON SKY SHARDS

It's time for the final test of their school year! But that test is soon interrupted... By some unlikely news.


	13. Chapter 13: VS Fletchling

Author's Notes: I need to get back on my schedule... Hrmm...

Anyway, this chapter introduces Lena's dad! Also an original character, so, yeah.

Then shit gets real at the end of the chapter.

* * *

><p>Chapter 13: VS Fletchling<p>

It was the week before the final week of school. Lena could hardly believe it. That, and now she had to prepare for finals.

According to Trevor, the test for the finals changed every year at their school, and they didn't know if it was going to be a written test or a practical one. As such, everyone had to study extra hard, to ensure they were prepared for whichever test it was.

Lena sat at a desk she had pushed over to Trevor's, along with Serena and Shauna. It was their last class of the day, but it had been changed to study hall in order for them to prepare for finals, so they were attempting to do just that: study. Lena copied Trevor's notes to the best of her ability, even though she doubted that she'd be able to read it later on. Her handwriting was terrible.

"You sure you don't know which test it's going to be?" Lena asked.

"No, Lena, I don't. It's random. Don't think that just because it might be a practical test that you don't have to study."

Lena grumbled something under her breath and kept on writing. Her hand began cramping. Ugh, this sucked so bad...

The school bell soon rang, saving Lena from her torture. She jumped up, messily shoved everything into her bag, then raced out of the classroom before anyone could stop her.

"Now that's what I call someone who doesn't want to study," Serena said. "Makes me look super smart."

Trevor could only roll his eyes and sigh. Why couldn't there be a single sensible person in their group...?

* * *

><p>"Mom, I'm home!"<p>

Lena slammed open the front door and was treated to something even better than her mom looked frightened by her sudden entrance.

Her father stood there in the kitchen.

"DAD!" Lena dropped her bag and ran to him, throwing her arms around her father and holding him tight. "Why aren't you at your job?"

"I'm just visiting for the next month," her father said. "How's my favorite son? How's he doing?"

"He's doing fine!" Lena said as her father rustled up her hair. She didn't care that her father made a frequent habit of referring to her as his son; he still loved her, and that was what mattered most.

"I heard from your mom that you finally got a Pokémon. Are you going to show it to me, or do I have to wait all day?"

Lena pulled out Espurr's Poké Ball from her skirt pocket and sent out the cat Pokémon. Espurr stared up at her father from approximately eight seconds before saying, _"Mraaowr,"_ and running to hide behind Lena's legs.

"Oho, an Espurr! I thought you wanted a Sinnoh Pokémon?"

"Well, I'm not going to find one here," Lena said. "Besides, Espurr beat up someone for me, so now we're best friends."

If her father was in any way bothered by that statement, he didn't show it. He bent down in front of Espurr. "Hello there, Espurr. I'm Lena's father, Eric. It's nice to meet you."

After a moment, Espurr nodded, walking out from behind Lena's legs and sticking out a paw to him. He pressed a finger to Espurr's paw, and then Espurr nodded again.

"Can it talk?"

"Nope!"

"Ehhh? But it's a psychic-type. Most psychic-types can learn how to speak while they're in an egg, because of their powers," her father said. "I guess this one never learned how."

Lena frowned. That was weird. And inconvenient. She'd always imagined having full-fledged conversations with her Pokémon. But why wouldn't Espurr talk?

With a shrug, she decided to ignore the oddity. She had a lot to tell her father.

* * *

><p>The finals were on Monday. Lena spend the entire weekend messing around with her father, showing him around Santalune, training with him a bit, and watching Spirit Adventures with him.<p>

So naturally, when she woke up Monday morning and headed to school, she had completely forgotten that finals were today. Until she walked into the school yard and found all of the students outside.

She pushed through the crowds until she found her friends. She'd only found them because of Trevor's orange hair. It wasn't a common color there in the city.

"What's going on here?" she asked.

"It's a practical test, yay!" Shauna squealed.

"...Practical test? For what? I didn't know we had a test today."

They all stared at her.

"...You're... kidding, right?" Trevor asked.

"Uh, no?"

Calem started laughing. "Oh, man, you are such a moron!" he said. Lena punched him in the lower back, making him shout and glare at her.

"It's finals," Shauna said. Her pigtails seemed to wilt as she looked at Lena. "You forgot?"

"To be completely honest with you, yeah, I totally forgot," she said. "See, my dad came home from his job, and I spent all weekend spending time with him."

"Ooh, your dad came home? Can I meet him?"

"Sure, how's after school sound? Trevs, you want to meet him too?"

Trevor was too busy pretending that he didn't know who she was at the moment.

"Lighten up, Trevs, so what that she forgot about finals?" Tierno said. "At least it's a practical test. These are always way more fun."

"We always took written tests in Sinnoh," Lena said. "So this is new to me. What do you do during a practical test?"

"It's super simple," Serena said. "They set up mazes around the city. You are given one maze to go through, and you have to use your Pokémon and the knowledge you gained throughout the year to head through the maze. You're graded based on how quickly you can make it through the maze."

"Ooh!"

They stayed out in the school yard for a bit, until the finals began. Professor Sycamore led the way for the third year students across the city. They arrived at the forest, which was now surrounded by psychic Pokémon.

"What's with the Pokémon?" Lena asked.

"They put up a force field to ensure you don't accidentally leave the maze," Shauna said.

"Ohhh."

Professor Sycamore began to clap his hands together. "Everyone, please listen!" he called out. "This year's practical test is about to begin! You will be chosen at random, two at a time, to go through the maze. You can choose to work together with the person in the maze with you, or you can work alone. Do whatever you feel is best.

"You are to use your skills and your Pokémon to get through the maze. At the end of the maze will be a special obstacle that you must defeat in order to finish the maze. Other obstacles, such as Pokémon within the maze, are not required to be defeated in order to pass.

"Now, without further ado, let's pick out our first two students!"

Professor Sycamore called out the names of two people Lena didn't know, and they entered the maze together.

Then there was nothing to do but wait patiently for their names to be called. Lena watched as first, Serena went into the maze with a boy from another class. Then Calem went in with Tierno. Trevor with another boy she didn't know.

Then it was just her and Shauna left in their group of friends.

"I hope we get paired together for the maze," Shauna was saying. "You'll stick with me, though, won't you?"

…She must have noticed the look Lena had given her when she suggested them going through the maze together. However, Lena put on her best fake smile and said, "Yeah, sure, whatever."

She knew full well they weren't going to be put together on the same group. And then...

"Lena and Shauna," a female teacher called.

Lena tried not to look too horrified as she and Shauna walked up to the jersey-clad teacher.

"Okay, use your Pokémon and your knowledge to head through the maze, " the teacher said. "You can go together as you wish, as Sycamore already mentioned. It will not detract from your score if you do. There are items in the maze that may help you. Finding their hidden locations can boost your overall score, but don't waste your time trying to find just the items. It's a time-based event, and the goal is to reach the end as fast as you can. Do you understand? Need me to go over anything else?"

"No, ma'am," they said.

"Then get in there! Good luck, you two!"

And they entered the darkened forest. It was the same as always, and yet, it was also different. It wasn't the path Lena remembered using when she found Victini and Carbink, probably because they weren't at the same entrance as before. When Lena turned around to see the exit, however... It was gone.

"...They'll save us if we don't get out in time, right?" Lena asked.

"Of course. We have a half hour to reach the end, with extra time added for the final obstacle," Shauna said. "Now, let's go!"

They headed on through the forest. Lena jumped at every sound she heard, while Shauna babbled away because she was a moron and didn't know any better.

A Pokémon jumped out of the trees and into their path. It was an orange and gray bird Pokémon. Lena grabbed Espurr's Poké Ball. "Go, Espurr!" she shouted. "Use Confusion!"

Espurr burst out of the ball and launched an immediate attack, blasting the Pokémon back. The Pokémon lunged forwards, pecking at Espurr, but Espurr dodged the attack and used Confusion again. The Pokémon stumbled backwards again.

"Come on, Lena, one more attack!" Shauna cheered.

"Confusion, one more time!" Lena ordered. Espurr's ears lifted up slightly as it launched another attack, and this time, the Pokémon collapsed in a faint. Lena let out a cheer and plucked Espurr up from the ground, hugging it tightly to her body.

"I wonder how strong Espurr's getting," Shauna said as they started walking, Lena cuddling Espurr.

"I don't know, but I don't care!"

"I think it has an evolution... I don't remember what it's called, though."

The idea of this excited Lena. She wondered if she could find a picture of Espurr's evolution after school.

"Oh, over there!" Shauna suddenly said.

Lena watched as Shauna rushed into the grass nearby. She reached down, then straightened back up and spun around, holding an orange spray bottle in hand. "A super potion! Yay!"

…How did Shauna find... Yeah, Lena was better off not thinking about it.

Up ahead was a large patch of light. The two girls rushed towards it. There was a clearing in the forest, with no trees, letting in the sunlight from outside the forest.

"There's bound to be an item hiding around here somewhere!" Shauna said, looking back and forth. "Hmm..."

"_...ttention, citizens of the world. Attention, citizens of the world. This is an important announcement being broadcast by the Leagues around the world._"

Lena looked up. In the sky was an enormous hologram of a woman Lena had never seen before. Shauna turned her face to the sky as well.

"A news broadcast being shown in the sky? That's never happened before," Shauna said.

"_Hello, people of the world,"_ the woman said. "_We interrupt your regularly scheduled programs and daily activities with grave news._

"_It has come to our attention that there have been many disturbances in the world as of late. There are increases of Pokémon attacks, increases of natural disasters._

"_And we've finally come to understand what exactly the cause of these incidents are._

"_The legendary Pokémon who have shaped our planet are intending to wipe out all of humanity._

"_There will be no humans left behind. There will only be Pokémon._

"_And it's come to our attention that there are two legendary Pokémon on the loose. Rumor has it that they are currently on the Santalune City airship._

"_Their names are Diancie and Victini._

"_Do not be fooled by their appearances. These Pokémon are reportedly manipulating several citizens into doing their bidding._

"_If you catch any sign of these two legendary Pokémon, we ask you to report it to the Pokémon League Association immediately._

"_We do not intend to allow these Pokémon to wipe out our race. We shall do everything in our power to prevent this from occurring. Please, do not worry._

"_That is all."_

The hologram vanished from the sky.

Lena was silent, but there were a million questions in her mind.

The big one was...

_How did they find out about Victini and Diancie?_

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: OH SNAP THINGS JUST GOT REAL, YO.<p> 


	14. Chapter 14: VS Growlithe

Author's Notes: It's almost 1:40 AM where I live, so I figured, why not update Sky Shards? Yes, I'm that bored.

To answer Guest 2.0's review... I have considered it, and I suppose it might be interesting, but I'm terrible at writing romance. Also, I would love very much to burn Sinnoh Tales and make sure that no one ever remembered the horror that it was. Seriously, what was that thing. That was honestly the worst thing I've ever written. I reread it the other day and just sat in horror at the things I had done. "Why, Loveon, why?" I said to myself, holding my head in my hands in complete and utter shame.

There's a reason I deleted it off of here. It was terrible. UGH. I HATE THINKING ABOUT THAT THING. WHY WOULD I WRITE SUCH A THING?! WHY.

Ahem... Enough on that, though. Onward with the next chapter of Sky Shards! Shauna turns into a wimp in this chapter!... She gets better eventually, though. I just wanted to make her crack a bit.

* * *

><p>Chapter 14: VS Growlithe<p>

Lena and Shauna stood there in that clearing, in complete silence. Voices were rising from outside the forest, growing in volume until one could almost clearly hear the words that were being said.

"Everyone, calm down! There's nothing to worry about! Please, calm down!" Professor Sycamore's voice shouted.

Lena turned to Shauna. Shauna turned to Lena.

"Lena...," Shauna said, her voice quiet and afraid. "They... I don't know... Who do we trust? Diancie or... or the Pokémon League Association?"

Lena didn't know what to say. Were they being manipulated by Diancie and Victini? But everything they said sounded true. What reason would they have to tell them that the legendary Pokémon were going to kill all the humans ahead of time?

"I... don't know."

Shauna began trembling. "I-I don't know what we should do. Do we turn in the Pokémon to them? Or do we keep them and try to... I... How..."

She looked at Lena, eyes wide. "...How are we supposed to save the world, Lena? I don't know what we should do anymore... S-Should I... Should I turn Diancie in? Let them deal with her? W-wha-what do I do, Lena?"

"No," Lena said. She squared her shoulders. "We aren't going to turn in Diancie or Victini. We're going to help them gather the Sky Shards."

"But how?! How're we supposed to do that when the shards are hidden in the Pokémon League towers?! Our... Our goal's impossible! Lena, we can't do anything! We-we..."

Lena grabbed Shauna by the shoulders. "Stop it!" she shouted. "We aren't going to give up. We can do this."

"But..."

"Let's hurry and finish this maze," Lena said. "We'll talk with the others about this. Okay? So let's not make any rash decisions, Shauna."

Shauna nodded, still looking terrified.

Then they hurried on through the forest.

* * *

><p>They finished the maze later than they should have. The teacher waiting at the finish line told them that they would make sure to alter their test results to exclude the time the announcement took up.<p>

They hurried on to find their friends. They stood in a group, quietly talking to one another as they approached.

"Guys," Shauna said, her voice cracking.

"It's okay, Shauna," Tierno said. "Professor Sycamore wants us to go to the lab and wait for him there."

Lena and Shauna nodded. It was a half-day, that finals day, so once they were done with their tests, they were free to go home.

So they hurried to the lab.

* * *

><p>"The heck was with that announcement?"<p>

…Bill was shouting when the group arrived at the lab. Clearly infuriated by the announcement, he was pacing back and forth in the lobby, arms crossed over his chest.

"It just doesn't make any darn sense... What're they up to?"

"What're who up to?" Serena asked.

Bill looked up in surprise. "The Pokémon League Association, who else?"

Lena didn't know what all this stuff about the Pokémon League Association was. She knew a few basic details; they were the ones who assigned Gym Leaders and Elite Four to regions. But that was about all she knew.

"You kids still got Diancie and Victini with ya?" Bill asked.

"I left Diancie at home," Shauna quietly said. Then, before anyone could call her an idiot, added, "But I hid her Poké Ball! No one will find it!"

"I also left Victini at home," Serena said. "But I didn't hide him."

"Oh, great, Serena," Lena said. "First you're stupid enough to show it to the Champion of Kalos, then you let it out in a _restaurant,_ and now you-"

"Wait, what?" Calem asked.

"Champion of Kalos?" Tierno asked.

"You let Victini out in a restaurant?!" Trevor squeaked.

"In my defense," Serena said, "Lena was the one who smacked Victini's Poké Ball out of my hand and released it."

"YOU STILL SHOWED IT TO THE CHAMPION."

"Wait, wait, wait," Calem said, shaking his head. "The Champion of Kalos...? You met Diantha?!"

"Yeah, she treated us to lunch," Lena said. "Or was it dinner...?'

"DID YOU GET HER AUTOGRAPH?" Calem shouted.

"Uh... no?"

Calem held his head in his hands. "Youdidn'taskforherautographIcan'tbelieveyou."

"Sorry, you'll need to add spaces between your words for me to understand that."

"Can you quit foolin' around?" Bill asked. "This is a big situation! Dangerous, even!"

"No... he's right," Calem said. "Diancie and Victini are in big trouble. I don't know how they found out about those two Pokémon and that they were here in Santalune..."

"Ah, yeah, Diantha knew we were from Santalune," Serena said. Then she stopped. "...You guys... don't think that Diantha was the one who told the League about Victini and Diancie, do you?"

"She didn't know about Diancie, though. Only about Victini, because of your big mouth," Lena said.

"And because you smacked Victini's Poké Ball out of my hand."

"IRRELEVANT, SERENA. THAT IS IRRELEVANT!"

Tierno leaned over to Trevor and whispered, "I didn't know she knew what irrelevant meant."

"SHUT UP, TIERNO."

Tierno shut up.

The doors behind them opened up, and everyone turned as Professor Sycamore walked into the lab, his long white coat billowing in an imaginary breeze. Lena blinked and rubbed her eyes. Man, she must've inhaled something weird in the forest.

"This is bad, everyone," Professor Sycamore said. "I don't know how the League found out about Diancie and Victini. Or how they know about the legendary Pokémon wanting to destroy the world. But now those two Pokémon are being treated as wanted Pokémon, and I've heard that there's even a reward for anyone who finds them."

"But this is insane, Professor Sycamore!" Trevor said. "Why can't the League cooperate with Diancie and Victini, gather the Sky Shards, and reach that place to stop the Pokémon that wants to destroy the world?"

Professor Sycamore's expression darkened. He looked away for a moment. "The Pokémon League Association isn't a very... how shall I put this... cooperative place. They never listen to suggestions, or to reason. They do as they please, and will manipulate anyone under their direct control into doing as they please."

"Should you really be saying that aloud?" Lena asked.

Professor Sycamore smiled a bit. "It's not like my lab is bugged or anything. They won't hear a word I say."

"You said that they'd manipulate anyone under their direct control," Calem said. "That... doesn't include the Gym Leaders and Elite Four, does it?"

"Unfortunately... it does."

Lena gulped. Her father wasn't a Gym Leader, but he worked for one. Did that mean that he would have to do whatever they told him to as well? She honestly didn't want to find out.

"What do we do?" Tierno asked.

"Y-Yeah," Shauna said. "We... We aren't able to gather the Sky Shards on our own..."

"Exactly." Professor Sycamore nodded. "Our group in this lab can't do much to accomplish our goal... However."

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

Professor Sycamore gave an odd grin to them. "I'm sure with my influence, I could change a couple of people's minds."

Lena had no idea what Professor Sycamore was planning on doing, but she decided that she really didn't like that grin.

* * *

><p>Lena walked home with Serena and Shauna. Since Shauna's house was closer to the lab, they decided to head in that direction first. The boys had gone their own ways, having other things to do before they headed home.<p>

Shauna was unusually quiet. Lena couldn't help but be a tad bit worried. She'd seemed extremely afraid earlier when they made that announcement.

"Hey... Shauna?" Serena began.

"Yeah?" Shauna asked. She kicked a pebble in her path, sending it bouncing across the sidewalk.

"Who's that at your house? That _is_ your house, right?"

Shauna's head snapped up. Standing at the front door of what Lena assumed was her house were several people dressed in blue. A woman who resembled Shauna was talking to them, holding a Poké Ball in her outstretched hand.

"No..."

Shauna let out a scream and broke into a run. "DON'T TAKE HER!" Shauna screamed. "DON'T YOU TAKE DIANCIE!"

Lena and Serena exchanged a glance, then hurried after her. "Shauna, wait!"

Shauna threw herself at the officer who was reaching to take the Poké Ball from the person Lena assumed was her mother. Shauna's mother gasped. "SHAUNA!"

"You can't take her, you can't!" Shauna screamed, thrashing about and striking the officer repeatedly. Tears began rolling down her cheeks as she slapped the officer over and over. "She's mine... You can't have her!"

Lena and Serena reached them, standing between the officers and Shauna's mother.

"Diancie's my friend, and you can't take her!"

"Shauna, how dare you do this!" her mother said. "And I can't believe you were hiding a Pokémon like this in your room! How could you do such a thing? Were you ever planning to tell anybody?"

"Please don't give Diancie to them, Mama!" Shauna cried, turning to face her mother. She let out another sob. "Please... don't do this..."

"Shauna, it's for the good of the world, don't you understand?" her mother said. "Turning in this one Pokémon can help save our world. You can't trust this Pokémon, no matter how innocent and cute it may seem. It is one of the legendaries who wish to destroy the world, don't you understand?"

"Mama... don't..."

Shauna's mother frowned. She stepped towards the officer, holding out the Poké Ball to them. Shauna grabbed the Poké Ball and took off running.

"SHAUNA!"

The officers began following her. Lena acted without thinking. She jumped onto the back of one of them, wrapping her arms around their neck. The officer stumbled, then threw her forwards. Her back struck the hard pavement, followed by her head, and she gasped. That hurt more than she thought it would. Her ears were ringing, and everything around her momentarily swirled around.

When everything stopped, she noticed that the officer she'd attacked was gone, but Serena was keeping the other one occupied.

"You two are under arrest! Under arrest!" the female officer screamed as Serena tried biting her. "This is assault against a police officer, I'll have you know!"

"YOU'LL NEVER GET THAT POKEMON, NEVER!" Serena screamed.

"Serena and Shauna's other friend, please, stop!" Shauna's mother said. Lena tried not to be offended that she didn't know Lena's name. "Why are you so adamant on protecting a Pokémon that wishes to destroy the world?!"

"Diancie's a good Pokémon!" Serena said. "She wouldn't hurt anything!"

"You don't know that!" the officer that Serena was attacking said. "You can't trust them! They can lie as well, I'll have you know."

"Lenny!" Serena turned to her. "Find Shauna and help her out!"

"ROGER!"

"Oh, no you don't!" The officer took out a Poké Ball, tossed it into the air. "Growlithe, go!"

A small dog Pokémon emerged from the Poké Ball. It was orange and yellow in color, with black stripes on its back. The dog Pokémon began to chase Lena, who reacted without thinking and sent out Espurr to fight it.

"Espurr, Confusion!"

Espurr's ears lifted into the air as it blasted the Growlithe back. It proceeded to hiss at Growlithe and run back to Lena. Lena set Espurr down on her shoulder and took off running in the direction Shauna and the other officer had gone in.

* * *

><p>"Hmm?" Calem said as he answered the phone. "What? Wait... Slow down, Serena! Where are you? At the police station? WHAT?!"<p>

Calem hung up the phone and sat there for a few seconds before he let out a sigh and began getting ready to leave. What in the world was going on now?

* * *

><p>Lena had no idea where Shauna was. She couldn't find the officer, either. She hurried through the city with Espurr on her shoulder, searching high and low (but mostly low because Shauna was short like she was) for any sign of Shauna or the officer.<p>

Espurr smacked her head with its paw and pointed off to the left. Lena turned to look; and found someone hiding in the bushes.

"Who's there?" Lena asked.

"It's me... Shauna."

Lena let out a sigh of relief and hurried over to her. She reached her hand out to Shauna and pulled her out of the bushes. "Come on," Lena said. "Let's go to my house. We'll be safe there."

Shauna meekly nodded, and the duo hurried off through the streets, taking back alleys and doing their best to not be seen.

Finally, Lena found her house. She rushed up to the front door and burst inside. "Mom, Dad!" she said.

"Oh, great, it's here," her mother grumbled from the couch.

Her father was in the kitchen, making dinner. "Hey there, my wonderful son!" he said, flipping the contents in the pan over. He looked back over his shoulder. "And who's this?"

"This... This is Shauna," Lena said. "Listen, we've got a big problem here."

"Like what?" her father asked. Her mother was now staring at them with mild interest.

"Um... How can I explain this... Uh..."

And Lena realized she couldn't tell them the truth. Her father worked with the Gym Leaders, so he might think it was the right thing to turn Diancie in.

"...Shauna and her mom got into a fight, and she needs someplace to stay," Lena said. "Can she stay here?"

"Of course she can," her father said.

"Eh, why not," her mother said, turning back to the TV.

Shauna looked nervous. Lena couldn't blame her. But at least her parents had believed her sort-of lie... Shauna _had_ gotten into a fight with her mother, after all.

"So you'll be joining us for dinner then, Shauna?" Lena's father asked. "All right! I'll make an extra serving!"

Shauna's face brightened up. "Thank you, Lenny's dad!"

"Just call me Eric. Or King Awesome. Whichever you prefer."

Lena's mother sighed and smacked her forehead. Her husband was a moron, and her daughter had inherited her stupidity from him. Great. Just great.

* * *

><p>The bedroom door opened, and Shauna walked inside, her hair wet and laying across her back.<p>

"Have a nice shower?" Lena asked, laying on her bed and handing books to Espurr for it to eat the corners off of.

"Yeah..."

Lena glanced up at Shauna. She didn't look so good. She looked... well, she certainly wasn't her happy, cheerful self, that was for sure.

"Don't you worry, Shauna," Lena said. "We won't let Diancie and Victini get taken away."

Shauna gave her a faint smile. "...Eheh, you're right. Um, so what are you doing with Espurr?"

"Espurr loves eating page corners," Lena said. "It's already gone through most of my books. Now I'm letting it eat my mom's books."

"...Er..."

The night went on, and finally, the two went to bed. Lena turned out the lights and went to lay down in her bed. Shauna slept on a spare mattress on the floor. Lena didn't know why they had a spare mattress, but not a sleeping bag. Well, she supposed the mattress was more comfortable, so...

"...Thanks a lot, Lena," Shauna said. "You... You really helped me out today."

"No prob. That's what friends are for, right? You watch my back, I'll watch yours."

"...Eheheh..."

They fell silent. Espurr was curled on Lena's pillow, already asleep.

Shauna spoke. "Lena, I... I got really scared today, when those people came to take Diancie. I thought for sure that she'd be safe in my house, but she wasn't. My mom found her and tried turning her over to the police.

"We can't trust anyone outside of our group, can we? That's why you didn't tell your mom and dad what really happened."

"Yeah...," Lena said. "That, and my dad works with the Gym Leaders as an assistant. After Professor Sycamore said that that Association place manipulates the Gym Leaders... who probably manipulate their gym assistants into helping them out. So I didn't think it would be safe to tell them."

"What should I do about Diancie? Can I leave her here again, or should I bring her to school with me?"

Lena thought. "...They might be waiting for us at school tomorrow, you know."

"Ah... Yeah, you're right."

Lena turned her head to look at Shauna. The other girl lay on her back, stared up at the darkened roof, all while being completely silent.

Lena looked at the ceiling as well.

"...Everything's going to be okay," Lena said. "We'll protect them, gather the Sky Shards, and stop the legendary Pokémon. I know we can do it."

"Yeah. We can do anything if we put our minds to it."

Lena smiled. But underneath that smile was fear. Fear of what would happen... if they didn't stop the other legendary Pokémon in time.

She rolled over onto her side and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: GOD SHAUNA GROW A PAIR, WHY DON'T YOU.<p>

Less than two weeks until ORAS, guys! LESS THAN TWO WEEKS BEFORE I CAN GET TO WORK ON HOENN TALES AGAIN! I won't ditch this story when it comes out, though... I promise I'll finish it.

(Not like anyone cares, but...)

I'm here to answer any questions you guys have, even if they're not related to the story! ASK ME QUESTIONS, I LOVE GETTING QUESTIONS!

...I'm getting hyper, damn...


	15. Chapter 15: VS Vivillon

Author's Notes: ORAS in two days, guys. ORAS! ORAS!

Anyway, I'll answer the questions at the end. So they don't make this opening author's note too long...

The battle in this chapter sucks. Just a fair warning. And I apologize if Viola's a bit out-of-character...

* * *

><p>Chapter 15: VS Vivillon<p>

When Lena and Shauna entered the classroom the next morning, a couple of kids rushed up to them, looking more eager than they usually did. They exchanged a glance, then turned back to Lena and Shauna.

"We wanted to ask if we could join the cause!"

Lena stared. "What?"

"Protecting Diancie and Victini from the Pokémon League Association! We want to help you guys with it!"

Lena's jaw dropped open. She exchanged a glance with Shauna, then scanned the classroom for Serena, Calem, Tierno, or Trevor. None of them were there at the moment, so it was just Lena and Shauna.

"How did... How did you find out?" Shauna asked.

"Professor Sycamore told everyone in class," the boy said. "He told us how Diancie and Victini are on the run from Pokémon that want to kill them, when they themselves just want assistance in saving the world from being wiped of the human race."

"Yeah!" another kid, a girl, said. "That announcement yesterday made them sound like they were crazed Pokémon on the loose... But if the professor thinks that they're good Pokémon, then they are!"

Lena looked at Shauna again. Tears were beginning to well up in her friend's eyes. Shauna gave a faint laugh, wiped at her eyes, then smiled.

"'Course you can help us!" she said. "The more the merrier!"

"Do you know where Serena and the others are, though?" Lena asked the boy.

The boy nodded. "They went with Professor Sycamore down to the office. I don't know what they're doing, though."

"So wait, you all want to help us out with this?" Lena asked, just to make sure.

Everyone in the class began nodding. "Yeah!" "Sure do!" "Of course!" "We've got to save the world!"

And Lena smiled.

"Thanks... everyone."

* * *

><p>Serena stood in the teachers' office, using the printer. With Trevor's computer knowledge, they had printed out a special newspaper of sorts, detailing everything that they needed help with and a long speech written by Professor Sycamore as to why they needed to help Diancie and Victini save the world.<p>

She heard the door to the room open. Picking up the stack of papers that had appeared at the other end of the printer, Serena turned around and froze.

A middle-aged man had walked in. His hair was black, and he wore a long brown trenchcoat over his clothes. He looked around the room, eyebrows furrowed, until his eyes landed on Serena.

He started for her. Serena instinctively backed up against the printing machine.

"Um, c-can I help you, sir...?" she asked.

"Yes. I'm with the International Police. My name... or rather, my codename, is Looker."

…Oh, no.

"Serena Gabena, it's come to my attention that you are in posession of one of the legendary Pokémon that we seek," Looker said. "Please hand it over, else you will be placed under arrest."

"Er... Legendary Pokémon? Wish I had one of those, but, uh, I don't, hahaha..."

She heard Trevor smack his head on the table where he was working at.

"I've heard from a very reliable source that you are in possession of Victini," Looker continued. His eyebrows came together, forming a deep crease between them.

Serena felt her temper flare. In spite of herself, she shouted, "And what if I do own Victini and won't hand him over? Then what? Are you going to arrest me like you did last night?"

"The police of Santalune arrested you last night... I work with an entirely different league of officers. And I assure you that if we of the International Police arrest you, you will not be leaving as easily."

Serena grit her teeth. "You can't have Vicitni! I'll battle you if it comes to that!"

"And so will I," Calem said, entering the office with Tierno.

"Same here," Tierno said.

Trevor stood from his desk. "And I will, too!"

There was silence, the only sound belonging to the printer printing paper after paper.

"...Hmph. You're that desperate to protect a single Pokémon?" Looker asked.

"We aren't desperate," Serena said. "We know we can take you down any day!"

"Is that a threat against a police officer?"

"...Er."

Looker grabbed a chair, pulled it over to him, and sat down. He folded his arms across his chest. "Give me five reasons, no, ten reasons, why I should allow Victini and Diancie to stay here within the city."

"...Er... Uh..."

Serena looked to her friends for help.

They were saved by Professor Sycamore's entrance. "A major reason," he said, "is that they know about the Sky Shards that can save our world."

* * *

><p>"Lena," Shauna whispered, tapping on Lena's shoulder. Lena turned to her from where she was sketching out a terrible drawing of Calem falling off the airship, just because she could.<p>

"There're officers outside. Do... Do you think they're here for me?"

Lena ran to the window. Sure enough, the outside area of the school was swarming with police officers. "Shit."

"What's wrong?" one of the girls asked.

"Officers. A lot of them. They're probably here for Shauna."

Shauna whimpered. "I-I hope Diancie's okay... I hid her in the corner of your closet, but... What if your mom finds her?"

"...I don't know," Lena said. She could only hope that her mother wouldn't give Diancie over to the police. Or go into her closet to search for her missing items. Lena had a habit of stealing her mother's things and hiding them there. She probably should've told Shauna to not hide Diancie in there.

"Oh, someone's leaving the building," a boy who was looking out the window said. Lena leaned forwards, trying to get a good look at whoever was leaving the building. It was a man in a long brown trenchcoat. He said something to the officers, who began to hurry away from the school.

"I wonder what's going on..."

Professor Sycamore entered the classroom then, followed by Serena, Calem, Tierno, and Trevor. Professor Sycamore was looking rather... excited for some reason.

Lena really wished he would stop grinning, because it was kind of creepy and made her nervous. And not in a good way.

"Well, class. You may have noticed the officers outside. They were here to back up Officer Looker of the International Police."

"What?!"

"He was here for Victini and Diancie," he said. "But... Thanks to my excellent communication skills, he's decided to temporarily call off the search here in Santalune."

"What?! H... How?!" Lena said. The other kids were looking just as shocked as she was.

"We gave him ten reasons why he shouldn't capture Victini and Diancie," Serena said. "And it worked!"

"So for now, I'm going to need everyone's help," Professor Sycamore said. "We've printed out several fliers that need to be passed out... I want everyone to gather in the halls and outside the school and hand them to anyone you see.

"We'll spread the knowledge of these Pokémon and what they want to do... We'll get all of Santalune City on our side! And then... from there, it's the Pokémon League tower itself!

"Tomorrow's the last day of school, so we're going to need to gather the entire school's attention before then! Let's get working!"

"ALL RIGHT!"

* * *

><p>"Take a flier, bitch," Lena said, shoving several fliers at the chest of a boy who was passing by.<p>

"Lena, for the last freaking time, I'M WORKING WITH YOU," Calem shouted, shoving the fliers back at her. "AND YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET ANYONE TO LISTEN IF YOU CALL PEOPLE BITCHES ALL DAY LONG."

"SHUT UP, YOU STANK ASS HOE BAG."

It was after school. Many kids were leaving the school building. Lena shoved fliers at anyone who passed, told them to pass on the information to their friends and family, then threatened that if they didn't, she and Espurr would haunt them in their dreams. Espurr, who was standing beside her, would proceed to hiss until the person scurried away.

You could say that she was doing an excellent job of not getting anything done correctly.

Lena wiped the sweat from her forehead. It was hot outside... Ugh. She looked down at Espurr, who was staring at its own shadow.

She heard a voice sigh very loudly. She turned around and nearly screamed.

Standing at the school gates was the Gym Leader of Santalune City, Viola.

"What exactly are you all doing?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips, the camera around her chest swaying slightly.

"Hi, Gym Leader Viola!" Serena shouted. "We're passing out fliers, as you can see!"

"I know. I read one of them." Viola frowned. "So you're trying to lead a rebellion now, are you? Is that what you're trying to do?"

"No," Calem said. He passed another flier to a passing student. "We're just raising awareness about the situation."

"I can't let you do this any longer. Please, hand over Victini and Diancie to the police. I don't know how you managed to stop Officer Looker, but this is the final straw. If you don't listen, everyone joining this rebellion will be placed under International Police custody."

Lena handed another flier to another passing student.

"Are you listening?" Viola asked, her voice rising. "I said-"

"Oh, we heard you," Serena said. "We just don't feel like listening. Arrest us if you want... But we're not going to go without a fight."

Viola grit her teeth. "Fine then. Everyone who doesn't side with their force, clear out of the area!"

A couple of kids ran out of the school yard, then stopped to watch whatever was about to ensue.

Viola took out a Poké Ball. "Go, Vivillon!" she shouted, sending out the butterfly Pokémon. "Use-"

"Delphox, Flamethrower!"

Viola's eyes widened as flames rocketed forth, towards her Vivillon. Vivillon quickly flew out of the way, eyes focusing on its attacker.

Serena had sent out Delphox. Shoving the remaining fliers into Trevor's arms, she turned to Delphox and faced Viola.

"Viola, I won't let you stop us," Serena said. "What we're doing is the right thing, don't you see? We need to gather the Sky Shards with Diancie and Victini's help and save the world!"

"I don't believe that," Viola said. "Vivillon, Supersonic!"

Vivillon let out a screeching noise. Lena dropped her fliers and clapped her hands over her ears. What a horrible sound.

Delphox stumbled forwards, lifted its stick to attack. The stick swayed around, unable to focus on its target. Delphox grit its teeth.

"Try and focus, Delphox! Flamethrower!"

"Powder!"

It was too late for Delphox to stop itself. Vivillon darted ahead, covering Delphox with a fine powder as Delphox lifted its stick and blew fire from its mouth.

The powder on its fur combusted, causing an explosion to surface. Delphox let out a scream and dropped to the ground. It struggled to push itself up.

"Shit, I forgot...," Serena muttered. She ran to Delphox's side, helping the fox Pokémon stand up. She glared at Viola and Vivillon. "Come on, Delphox... Can you fight?"

Delphox nodded.

"Then Psyshock!"

"Sleep Powder!"

Vivillon started flying towards Delphox again. Delphox lifted its stick, focusing, as several silver balls appeared in a perfect circle around the stick. The silver balls flew forwards, crashing into Vivillon, whose flight became erratic thanks to the attack.

But the butterfly Pokémon caught itself, spreading its wings and releasing another powder over both Serena and Delphox. Almost immediately, Delphox collapsed to the ground, eyes fluttering shut.

On the other hand, Serena was able to keep herself awake. Her eyelids fluttered about, attempting to shut themselves and allow her to give in to the sleep. "No... I can't fall..." She yawned. "Asleep now... ARGH! THAT IS SUCH A CHEAP TRICK!"

"A cheap trick is what you're all doing right now," Viola said. "Passing out fliers to convince people that rebelling against the Pokémon League is right... That's what I call a cheap trick."

"We're not rebelling against... against any... one..."

Serena fell to her knees, struggling to keep herself awake. "I'm... not asleep... Not yet..."

Trevor dropped the fliers and hurried to Serena's side. "Hang on, Serena," he said. "Guys, help her out! We'll all battle Viola!"

Lena nodded, turning to Espurr. "Espurr, let's do this!"

"_Mraowr."_

Calem sent out Frogadier, while Tierno sent out his Crawdaunt, a tall reddish orange crab Pokémon with large claws. Trevor and Shauna sent out their Aurorus and Chesnaught.

"Hmph. Ganging up now?" Viola asked. "Fine! Then I'll just have to go all out, too! Go-"

"Viola, stop right now!"

Viola let out a gasp and spun around. Walking through the front gates was a woman, with short brown hair. A single piece curled around in front of her face. She wore a black and red parka and jeans. A black bag was tied around her waist, where there sat a yellow and black Pokémon with large blue eyes.

"Alexa, what're you doing here in Santalune?!"

Alexa smiled. "I was here to run a story on how the finals in Kalos were being run. Didn't expect things to turn out like this."

"What're you stopping me for? These kids are—"

"-leading a so-called rebellion, I get it," Alexa said with a wave of her hand. "But Viola... Tell your big sister a little something, won't you?

"Are you fighting these kids because you truly believe what they're doing is wrong... or are you only doing what the Pokémon League Association ordered you to do?"

Viola stared at Alexa in shock. "I... I'm doing... what I truly believe."

Alexa frowned. "You're an awful liar, Viola."

"I'm not... I'm not..."

"Tell the truth. Do you actually agree with these kids or not?"

Lena watched. She watched as Viola lowered her head to stare at the ground. She grit her teeth, her hands bunched into fists.

"I... I can't. I can't, Alexa. I have to... This is my job we're talking about!"

"So you're doing this to keep your job?"

"This job is everything to me! You know that! It took me so long to get this position... I finished school and had to attend special classes and take impossible tests, just to get this position! I can't just... If I tell everyone how I really feel, then..."

"I didn't know I raised you to be such a liar and a wimp, Viola," Alexa said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I am not-"

Viola stopped. She looked back at where Lena and her classmates stood. She met eyes with Lena, but Lena couldn't tell the expression on her face.

Viola turned back to Alexa, her sister.

"...You're right," Viola said. "I... I'm only doing this because it's what the League ordered me to do. In fact, I believe we should... we should trust these two legendary Pokémon. If they went out of their way to warn people about it, they can't be all that bad, right?"

Serena's eyes snapped open. "I'M NOT ASLEEP!" she shouted.

"Wait, so you mean that you're siding with us on this matter?" Trevor squeaked.

Viola frowned briefly. But then she smiled. "...Yes... I'll probably lose my job for this, but... Let's go! I'll order the ship to head for the Pokémon League tower, and from there, we'll gather this so-called Sky Shard! But first, I need to know a little more information..."

"Right!" Calem said. "I'll bring you to Professor Sycamore! Follow me, please!"

Viola returned Vivillon to its Poké Ball and followed after Calem. Lena couldn't believe their luck. Not only had they managed to stop the International Police, but now they managed to get a Gym Leader on their side? She couldn't believe it. It was so surreal.

"_Mraaaowr."_

Lena looked down at Espurr. It stared up at her.

"WE DID IT," Shauna screamed, jumping around the school yard and clapping her hands together. She rushed over to Lena, threw her arms around her, and earned herself a hiss from Espurr, which she completely ignored.

"This is great, Lena! If a Gym Leader's on our side, no one can stop us!"

"Yeah! We'll finally be able to gather these whatever shards now!"

Serena was still sleeping as all of this was happening. Trevor sighed and turned his face to the sky.

He hoped that everything was going to be okay...

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: NOTHING'S GOING TO BE OKAY, TREVOR. NOOOOTHING.<p>

Anyway, those questions. We'll start with PBJ's questions.

_What is it like writing a fanfic? _

It's fun. It's hard to describe what exactly it's like... It's just... Fun. Lame answer is lame, sorry.

_How long do you take when writing a single chapter to a story?_

Depends. Most of the time, it takes only an hour or so to get out a chapter, as long as I'm in a good mood to write. Sometimes, though, when scenes drag, it takes longer... Hrmm...

_Where do you get inspiration when making a new story?_

Usually by listening to music. It sounds lame, but... listening to music from the Pokémon games really gets my inspiration going. Also, looking at fan art makes me want to write.

_Does writing fanfic get in the way of real life?_

I prefer to say that real life gets in the way of fanfic writing. Just kidding. But since I lead the most uneventful life in the world, writing usually never gets in the way of real life.

_Why do you hate Sinnoh Tales (Never read it) so much?_

Because it was just a terribly written thing. The plot was just... everywhere. The writing was terrible, even by my standards. And half of the characters were so OOC that it was ridiculous. I just hate the fact that I even posted it, and that I kept it up for so long... I do look forward to rewriting it to make it better, though.

Next set of questions... From KazeWindfold!

_- You mentioned a punishment, what was it? I'm asking this since you never wrote anything more about it._

I'm assuming we're talking about the punishment Professor Sycamore gave them for sneaking out of the city? Eh, I never really thought about what the punishment was. UNTIL NOW. He made them perform the Rain Dance move alongside local Pokémon. I'm kidding... Probably...

_- What was the "boss" of Lena and Shauna's maze?_

It was actually supposed to be a Garchomp at the end of the maze that they needed to get by-

Yeah, I cut it out because it was pretty stupid. I did write some of it out, however. But I cut it when I rewrote the chapter... Because it just didn't fit in right. It seemed very out of place to have them face a Garchomp at the end after that revelation, so I cut it.

_- How hard were the mazes? I mean if they could be beaten in under 30 min._

The mazes were designed so that they could get through all the students by the end of the day, so they weren't particularly hard, if you had the knowledge to go through it. Of course, not everyone gets through it that fast...

I wasn't thinking of a practical time frame for it, though, but I was thinking that it should be short, for the above reason. I probably should've asked my sister on what a practical time for things like this were...

Anyway, expect Hoenn Tales up in a few days. It also features Lena as a main character. So you may be interested in it, if you like her a little bit.

I'm so excited for Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I'm getting Alpha Sapphire. If you guys are getting it, which version will you get? And what starter will you choose? I'm going with Mudkip, 'cause, you know, Mudkips.


End file.
